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Sup. Ct. Hears <i>Raging Bull</i> Laches Dispute

By Marcia Coyle
January 31, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court in January heard oral arguments on whether a person's unreasonable delay in filing a copyright infringement action can be used to bar that lawsuit. Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., 12-1315, stems from a dispute over the rights to Raging Bull , the 1980 Martin Scorsese film based on the life of World Middleweight Champion Jake LaMotta.

The issue before the justices is whether the doctrine of laches can be a defense to a copyright claim when the claim is filed within the Copyright Act's three-year statute of limitations. Laches is a “gap filler,” and Congress in the U.S. Copyright Act filled the gap with a clear, bright-line rule: the three-year statute of limitations, Stephanos Bibas of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law argued for Paula Petrella.

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