Engel v. Wild Oats, Inc.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
644 F.Supp. 1089 (1986)
Wild Oats (defendant), a t-shirt screen-printing company, printed 2,500 shirts using a copyrighted Central Park photograph by photographer Ruth Orkin Engel without permission, earning nearly $2 million in profits; Ruth's daughter Mary Engel (plaintiff) sued for infringement on behalf of Ruth's estate, and Wild Oats conceded infringement but argued damages should be measured by its actual profits rather than a statutory award, while Mary argued statutory damages were appropriate given the difficulty of quantifying reputational harm and lost future licensing revenue.
Whether a copyright holder may choose to seek statutory damages for copyright infringement instead of actual damages or disgorgement of the infringer's profits.