Bagdadi

OVERVIEW

Appellant Henri Bagdadi (Bagdadi) appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants Jose Nazar (Nazar) 1 and Linguex 2 in his action for copyright infringement. The district court granted Nazar’s motion for summary judgment and sua sponte granted summary judgment for Linguex. The court concluded that Defendants were entitled to an absolute defense as “innocent infringers” pursuant to section 406(a) of the Copyright Act of 1976. We affirm summary judgment as to Defendant Nazar and reverse the sua sponte grant of summary judgment as to Defendant Lin-guex.

FACTS

In 1988, Bagdadi contracted with Linguex to produce a series of language instruction videos. Linguex was opening language instruction schools and wanted Bagdadi to make an audio-visual program for use by instructors. The project included the video “English I,” which is the subject of this dispute. On the “English I” video, Bagdadi placed the Linguex Company logo and a notice reading “Copyright 1984 by Linguex International Limited, All Rights Reserved.” He also included graphics crediting himself as the writer, director, and producer of the video. Neither Bagdadi nor Linguex registered…