No Time Limit For Damages From Copyright Infringement

The Supreme Court held that copyright owners who file a timely claim may obtain damages no matter when the copyright infringement occurred.

On May 9, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in a 6–3 decision authored by Justice Kagan, that no time limit exists for monetary recovery under the Copyright Act. Although the Copyright Act sets a three-year statute of limitations for filing suit, this limit does not apply to the recovery of damages. Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, Case No. 22-1078, 601 U. S. ____ (2024).

At the outset, the Court noted that it "assume[d] without deciding" that the three-year statute of limitations for filing suit—which provides that a copyright owner must file suit "within three years after the claim accrued"—begins to run upon the owner's discovery of the infringement, as opposed to when the infringing act actually occurred. Accordingly, the only question before the Court was whether a separate time-based limit applies to the recovery