Perfect 10, Inc. v. Google, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
653 F.3d 976 (2011)
Perfect 10 (plaintiff) sued Google (defendant) for copyright infringement over thumbnail images and links to infringing third-party sites, alleging its revenues had collapsed from nearly $2 million to $150,000 a year and it was near bankruptcy because of Google's free access to its images; Perfect 10 also acknowledged its own founder had found similar thumbnails on other search engines besides Google. The district court denied Perfect 10's motion for a preliminary injunction, and Perfect 10 appealed.
Whether issuance of a preliminary injunction barring continuing copyright infringement requires an independent showing of likely irreparable harm, likelihood of success on the merits, a favorable balance of equities, and the public interest, without any presumption of harm from likely success alone.