Harley-Davidson has lost an early bid to dismiss a Complaint filed against it by a
freelance artist who claims the motorcycle maker used his logos outside of the scope of a license.
Wayne Wm.
Peterson, a freelance commercial artist, had produced numerous well-known logos
for the Harley-Davidson companies between the mid-1970's and the
mid-2000's.
The
famous "LIVE TO RIDE, RIDE TO LIVE" eagle was one of Peterson's
creations.
The decision explained that the Court could
not rule that Peterson's delay, while admittedly long, constituted an
unreasonably long delay barring all relief, on its face.
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), whenever a
Defendant moves to dismiss a Complaint for failure to even state a claim, all
the facts specifically plead in the Complaint are assumed to be true, and all
reasonable inferences in the Complaint are construed in the Plaintiff's favor.
Harley-Davidson had argued that, even viewed in this favorable light, the Plaintiff's long delay in bringing suit constituted a disabling estoppel by laches, and
violated a statute of limitations that should be applied to his copyright
claims for conduct occurring before 2009.
However,
the District Court stated that any dismissal would not be warranted solely on the
basis of the Complaint alone, in the absence of the parties conducting
discovery, because laches is an affirmative defense that Harley-Davidson bears the burden of proving.
Harley-Davidson is now free to develop a full record through discovery to establish
the proposition that the Plaintiff's long delay was indeed inexcusable and caused it prejudice.
