Starz Entertainment, LLC v. Mgm Domestic Television Distr.

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

STARZ ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, No. 21-55379 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 2:20-cv-04085-

DMG-KS

MGM DOMESTIC TELEVISION

DISTRIBUTION, LLC,

Defendant-Appellant. OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Dolly M. Gee, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 10, 2022 San Francisco, California

Filed July 14, 2022

Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw, Sandra S. Ikuta, and Bridget S. Bade, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Wardlaw SUMMARY *

Copyright

The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss copyright infringement claims as barred by the three-year limitations period set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 507(b).

Generally, a copyright claim accrues when the infringement occurs. The panel held that Petrella v. Metro- Goodwyn-Mayer, Inc., 572 U.S. 663 (2014), did not do away with the discovery rule, under which a claim alternatively accrues when the copyright holder knows or reasonably should know that an infringement occurred. Declining to adopt the approach taken by the…