WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court today denied an appeal by Canadian distributor Alain Elmaleh and his companies, Kaytel Distribution and Leisure Time Canada, in their chance to nix a multimillion-dollar award against the company.
Kaytel filed court papers with the Supreme Court to pare a $2.6 million copyright infringement verdict in favor of Jules Jordan Video and Jules Jordan as an individual.
But the Supreme Court rejected the case Wednesday with the following order: "The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied."
A federal judge in June 2011 gave the green light for Jules Jordan Video to collect after a 9th U.S. Circuit court of Appeal panel went along with the jury's verdict in the case.
In the lower court, U.S. District Judge James Otero earlier said that defendants had run out of motions for a new trial or to amend the outcome.
The case stems from a jury verdict in 2007 that determined the defendants pirated 31 Evil Angel movies and 13 movies from Jules Jordan, when he was a member of the Evil Angel directing roster.
Evil Angel separately was awarded $11.2 million.
Jordan also claimed the defendants violated his right of publicity.
The lower court rejected Kaytel defendants' claim that Jordan’s right of publicity claim was preempted by copyright law. The lower court also ruled that neither Jordan or Jules Jordan Video had standing to assert copyright claims.
On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Kaytel's contention of Jordan’s right of publicity, ruling Jordan and Jules Jordan Video had standing to assert the copyright claims in question.
Evil Angel and Jules Jordan uncovered the piracy ring after East Coast distributors reported knock-off copies of Evil Angel DVDs.
