Experience
Buddy Webster p/k/a Buddy Blaze
Dean Guitars; Armadillo Enterprises, Inc.; Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, Inc.; Estate of Dimebag Darrell Abbott; Does 4-10; and Guitar Center, Inc.
Finnegan secured summary judgment for Dean Guitars and the Estate of Dimebag Darrell Abbott in a hotly-contested copyright infringement and unfair competition case, with multiple Lanham Act, invasion of privacy, and state law claims. The case involved Darrell Abbott of the band Pantera—one of the world’s most popular and celebrated heavy metal guitarists—and a lightning bolt graphic on his “Dean from Hell” guitar, which for decades has been an inseparable part of Abbott’s persona and likeness. Plaintiff Buddy Webster p/k/a Buddy Blaze, a guitar builder who physically modified the Dean from Hell guitar, claimed that he owned the copyright in the lightning graphic.
After getting the case transferred from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Finnegan uncovered in discovery that Webster did not actually paint the lightning graphic—another person did. Finnegan worked with that individual to assign his copyright in the lightning graphic to Darrell Abbott’s estate.
In addition to arguing that Webster did not own the asserted copyright, Finnegan argued that Dean Guitars repudiated Webster’s copyright ownership in a 2007 email, rendering his copyright claim time-barred. The court agreed. It also found for Finnegan’s clients on the false advertising, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, and conspiracy claims.
Finnegan continued our representation of Armadillo/Dean Guitars in the appeal at the 11th Circuit, where oral argument was held in January 2020. In this case of first impression, the 11th Circuit affirmed the district court ruling and spoke on the issue of the accrual of copyright claims in disputes that center around copyright ownership. It held that unlike an ordinary copyright infringement claim, which accrues for each infringing act (per U.S. Supreme Court precedent), a claim concerning mainly ownership accrues only once. The court also set the standard for such accrual as “when the plaintiff learns, or should as a reasonable person have learned, that the defendant was violating his ownership rights.”
Buddy Webster v. Dean Guitars; Armadillo Enterprises, Inc.; Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, Inc.; Estate of Dimebag Darrell Abbott; Does 4-10; and Guitar Center, Inc., 8:17-cv-01795, M.D. Fla., Judges Jung, Honeywell
Buddy Webster v. Dean Guitars; Armadillo Enterprises, Inc.; Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, Inc.; Estate of Dimebag Darrell Abbott; Does 4-10; and Guitar Center, Inc., 2:17-cv-03027, C.D. Cal., Judges Walter, Wilner
Buddy Webster p/k/a Buddy Blaze v. Dean Guitars; Armadillo Enterprises, Inc.; Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, Inc.; Estate of Dimebag Darrell Abbott; Does 4-10; and Guitar Center, Inc., 19-10013, 11th Cir., Judges Wilson, Carnes, Branch
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