U.S. Supreme Court Rules No Time Bar on Recovery of Copyright Damages, Leaves Accrual Question on Repeat

• Pages: 30-33
• Date: 01 June 2025
• Published date: 01 June 2025
• Author: Megan C. Parker

LANDSLIDE June/July 2025

Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 4, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

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U.S. Supreme Court Rules

No Time Bar on Recovery of

Copyright Damages, Leaves

Accrual Question on Repeat

Megan C. Parker

In the realm of intellectual property law, copyright infringement

is a complex issue often further complicated by the nuances of

copyright damages, accrual of a copyright infringement claim,

and the statute of limitations. Where the Copyright Act is silent

on when a copyright infringement claim “accrues,” courts have

attempted to f‌ill in the gap—resulting in two separate accrual stan-

dards with conf‌licting outcomes for timeliness of a claim and the

damages a copyright owner can seek.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court tackled the second half

of these complicated nuances by determining whether a copy-

right owner who timely brings a lawsuit can recover damages for

infringements occurring beyond three years before f‌iling of the

suit. Despite this important ruling, the Court did not answer the

prerequisite question regarding when a suit is timely f‌iled.

Copyright Damages and Statute of Limitations

The Copyright Act requires that civil copyright actions must be

“commenced within three years after the claim accrued.”

1

Impor-

tantly, the statute does not provide when a copyright infringement

claim “accrues”—and, thus, when the three-year statute of limita-

tions begins running—leaving circuit courts divided on the issue.

Under the injury rule, a copyright claim accrues and is timely

under the statute of limitations when it is brought within three

years of the infringing activity. Under the discovery rule, a copy-

right claim accrues and is timely under the statute of limitations

when it is brought within three years of the copyright owner’s

discovery of the infringing activity.

Megan C. Parker is an associate in the intellectual property

group at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Arono LLP. Her

practice covers both litigation and counseling work, focusing

on copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and privacy

law, as well as evolving laws and regulations on artif‌icial

intelligence across multiple industries, and providing

clients up-to-date information on the intellectual property

and AI legal landscape. She can be reached at mparker@

beneschlaw.com.

Image: Getty Images/arismart