Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PERFECT 10’S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AGAINST GOOGLE

I. INTRODUCTION

The principal two-part issue in this case arises out of the increasingly recurring conflict between intellectual property rights on the one hand and the dazzling capacity of internet technology to assemble, organize, store, access, and display intellectual property “content” on the other hand. That issue, in a nutshell, is: does a search engine infringe copyrighted images when it displays them on an “image search” function in the form of “thumbnails” but not infringe when, through inline linking, it displays copyrighted images served by another website?

Plaintiff Perfect 10, Inc. (“P10”) filed separate suits against Google, Inc. and against Amazon.com, Inc. and its subsidiary, A9.com, Inc. (collectively, “Amazon”), alleging copyright and trademark infringement and various related claims. The suits were consolidated. P10 moves now for a preliminary injunction against both Defendants, solely on the basis of its copyright claims. P10 seeks to prevent Defendants’ image search engines from displaying “thumbnail” copies of PlO’s copyrighted images and also from…