Facts

Mon Cheri Bridals and Maggie Sottero Designs are manufacturers of and wholesalers for wedding and special occasion dresses, gowns and formal wear. Accordingly, they also own the copyrights to the photographic images of their formal wear, many of which were created from unique and original dress patterns and designs. Though they sell their apparel online, the proliferation of retailers selling counterfeits of their designs using their copyrighted images greatly diminished their sales numbers and brand reputation. In an effort to curtail and halt this trend, the two courtiers filed suit against the internet service provider many of the counterfeiters were using: Cloudflare Inc.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that defendant contributed to the underlying copyright infringement by providing infringers with caching, content delivery, and security services.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant contended that contributory copyright infringement requires either materially contributing to or inducing the infringement, of which the material did neither. Moreover, simply providing services to copyright infringers did not qualify as material contribution.

Result

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment.