Lynch v. Trendwest Resorts Inc.

MEMORANDUM **

Michael Lynch appeals the district court’s judgment entered in his suit for copyright infringement suit against Trend-west Resorts, Inc. (“Trendwest”) following a jury trial. We affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this appeal, we need not recount it here.

I

The district court properly determined that (1) Lynch’s suit was one seeking indirect, rather than direct, profits as damages for infringement, and (2) that summary judgment was appropriate on the indirect profits claim. As we noted in Mackie v. Rieser, 296 F.3d 909, 911 (9th Cir.2002), 17 U.S.C. § 504 (b) erects a two-prong “profits” structure, treating “direct” and “indirect” profits distinctly. “Direct” profits, we explained, are “those that are generated by selling an infringing product,” id,.; “indirect” profits, in counterpoint, are defined as “revenue that has a more attenuated nexus to the infringement.” Id.; see, e.g., Three Boys Music Corp. v. Bolton, 212 F.3d 477, 487 (9th Cir.2000); Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 886 F.2d 1545, 1550 (9th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1017 , 110 S.Ct. 1321 , 108 L.Ed.2d 496 (1990). The district…