Renoir Verdict

The verdict is in in that Renoir copyright infringement lawsuit I mentioned a few weeks ago. The Arizona Republic has the story here. Damages were awarded against the gallery in the amount of $5,000 for each of the 10 infringed sculptures, for a total of $50,000. Damages against Jean-Emmanuel Renoir (Renoir's great-grandson) were set at $7,500 per infringement, for a total of $75,000. The story adds that "in a related action, the court ordered the [plaintiff] to pay Jean-Emmanuel $120,000 for false advertising of an exhibit that took place in 2005," so it seems the total net to the plaintiff may have been just $5,000. In any event, the defendants seem happy: "'The plaintiff had asked the jury to award them a total of $1.5 million dollars, and the jury just awarded them $50,000. We see that as a victory,' said Phil Flemming, the attorney for [defendant gallery] Rima Fine Art." Expect appeals.