The Walt Disney Company has been found guilty once again of using unlicensed visual effects for the live-action Beauty and the Beast film after a judge recently overturned the previous reversal.
Beauty and the Beast Lawsuit
Lawsuit Against Disney
Rearden LLC sued Disney in 2020 for using its visual effects technology to help create the appearance of the Beast’s face in the live-action movie Beauty and the Beast.
The company sued for $38M, claiming they own the software that was used. The technology, called MOVA Contour, uses motion capture to transfer an actor’s physical performance into computer-generated images. The company also claimed that DD3 stole the technology and used it for films produced by Disney and other studios.
Disney was fined $600,000 after a jury found that Disney knowingly used the technology, and they paid just over $300,000.
Reversal
In August 2024, District Judge Jon Tiger overturned the jury’s decision, saying that Disney was not guilty of knowingly using the stolen technology for the live-action film.
This ruling effectively reversed the original ruling, and Disney was innocent.
Found Guilty Again
In this most recent development, the Ninth Circuit overturned Judge Tigar’s ruling. Disney has been once again found guilty of using the technology without a license. The overturning comes over a year after the reversal.
Judge Lucy Koh stated,
The panel reversed the district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law in favor of Disney, concluding that Rearden had introduced legally sufficient evidence at trial for a jury to conclude that Disney had the practical ability to stop or limit DD3’s infringing conduct.
Disney has not responded to this overturning. However, Rearden CEO Steve Perlman stated that he “hopes the published opinion will protect innovative software in the future.”
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