The Patriot Post® · Raging Bull, Postponed Suit

Actor Robert De Niro won the 1981 Academy Award for his role as boxer Jake LaMotta in the film Raging Bull, but the Scorsese film also landed MGM in front of the Supreme Court this year over a blocked copyright suit. In 2009, Paula Petrella, the daughter of one of the film’s screenwriters, sued MGM for copyright infringement. MGM said Petrella waited so long to take the issue to court that the doctrine of laches, a doctrine that protects defendants against unreasonable delays, applied. The Court disagreed in a 6-2 decision. SCOTUS wrote, “Congress provided two controlling time prescriptions: the copyrighter term, which endures for decades, and may pass from one generation to another; and §507(b)‘s limitations period, which allows plaintiffs during that lengthy term to gain retrospective relief running only three years back from the date the complaint was filed.” In other words, Raging Bull isn’t ending up on the cutting room floor, but Petrella has the chance to prove her father’s screenplay is her property. More…