Filing a Copyright Infringement Complaint in Federal Court: A Litigator's Guide
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide walks a copyright infringement case from the first client meeting through filing, the defendant's first responsive move, and settlement, in thirteen numbered stages with the governing rule, the realistic cost, the timeline, and the trap under each. It starts where most cases actually die: the Fourth Estate registration gate of Section 411(a), the special-handling and preregistration workarounds, the deposit copy you must pull from the Copyright Office before you characterize your own client's work, and the chain of title that decides standing under Section 501(b). It then builds the works-in-suit schedule that drives everything downstream, because Section 412 makes registration timing a per-work question and therefore makes the statutory-versus-actual damages election a per-work question too. It covers exclusive federal jurisdiction under Section 1338 of Title 28, the broader copyright venue rule of Section 1400(a), choosing among direct, contributory, and vicarious defendants, and how the Section 512 safe harbor and Dastar quietly shape who you can sue and what you can plead alongside the copyright count. It gives model complaint and demand language you can adapt, a decision tree for the damages election, a cost-and-timeline table for a mid-sized case, and an annotated worked example carried from the intake call to the settlement agreement. Throughout it links to the companion doctrinal article rather than re-teaching substantial similarity, and it is deliberately longer and more argumentative than the companion checklist.
IP and Technology > Copyright | Guide | Published 12 August 2025 - Updated 26 July 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This is the working manual for taking a copyright infringement case from the intake call to a filed complaint, a served defendant, and a settlement that holds. Thirteen numbered stages, each with what you are doing, exactly how to do it, the rule that governs, what it costs, how long it takes, and the mistake that costs money: the Fourth Estate registration gate and its workarounds; pulling the deposit copy before you describe your own client's work; chain of title and standing under § 501(b); the works-in-suit schedule that makes § 412 a per-work problem; notice and demand without triggering a declaratory judgment race; exclusive jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1338 and the broader venue rule of § 1400(a); direct, contributory, and vicarious defendants; drafting the counts; joining DMCA § 1202, Lanham Act, and state claims without walking into Dastar or § 301 preemption; electing statutory or actual damages; filing and service mechanics down to Form AO 121; what comes back in the first ninety days; and settlement structures that actually bind. The doctrine lives in the companion article and is not repeated here.
Keywords: copyright infringement complaint · fourth estate registration prerequisite · special handling registration · deposit copy retrieval · copyright chain of title · exclusive federal jurisdiction 1338 · copyright venue 1400(a) · works-in-suit schedule · section 412 registration timing · statutory damages election · section 504(c) · dmca 1202 copyright management information · dastar lanham act limit · copyright preemption section 301 · contributory and vicarious infringement · dmca safe harbor section 512 · permanent injunction section 502 · kirtsaeng attorneys fees · copyright claims board · copyright settlement structures
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