| Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full case name | Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. |
| Citations | 309 U.S. 390 ( more ) 60 S. Ct. 681; 84 L. Ed. 825 |
| Holding | |
| In the case of an unauthorized adaptation, courts may elect to award only a portion of an infringer's profits to the plaintiff. The proportion that the defendant is entitled to keep is in proportion to the amount of original creative work went into the adaptation, and the court may be assisted in determining that by expert witness testimony. | |
| McReynolds took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 309 U.S. 390 (1940), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held, in the case of an unauthorized adaptation, courts may elect to award only a portion of an infringer's profits to the plaintiff. The proportion that the defendant is entitled to keep is in proportion to the amount of original creative work went into the adaptation, and the court may be assisted in determining that by expert witness testimony. The Court found that awarding more to the plaintiff "would be to inflict an unauthorized penalty." [1]
