In January 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered judgments against appropriation artist Richard Prince and his co-defendants Laurence Gagosian, Gagoisan Gallery, and Blum & Poe Gallery to resolve claims for willful infringement of two copyrights owned by photographers Donald Graham and Eric McNatt. Mr. Graham and Mr. McNatt alleged Mr. Prince and his co-defendants infringed their copyrights when Mr. Prince sold portraits of their copyright-protected photographs for tens of thousands of dollars.

Stout was retained by Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP on behalf of Plaintiffs. Stout assessed the damages suffered by Plaintiffs due to Defendants’ infringement of their copyrights. Stout relied upon an unjust enrichment calculation and a reasonable royalty analysis. Stout accepted this engagement on a pro-bono basis.

The judgments enjoined Defendants from committing any further acts of infringement and awarded Mr. Graham and Mr. McNatt damages in the amount of five times the sales price of Mr. Prince’s Instagram framed “New Portraits” works derived from Mr. Graham’s photograph “Rastafarian Smoking a Joint&rdquo and Mr. McNatt’s photograph “Kim Gordon 1,” respectively.

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