By Taylor Kent and James Graber
Our client, Spareroom Inc., runs a flatshare/roommate platform: people create their own listings and upload their own photos. A photographer sued in the Southern District of New York, claiming one of his images was posted on Spareroom without permission and asking for up to $150,000 in statutory damages for that alleged infringement.
So what do you do when someone says, “You might owe me $150k,” over a user-uploaded image?
You don’t panic. You get to work.
We dug into the case law on online platforms and user-generated content in SDNY and did what we always do in this space: looked closely at what the platform actually did (host user content) and what the law actually says about platform liability in that setting.
Then we used one of our favorite tools: a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment.
In plain English, Rule 68 lets a defendant say: “Here’s a number. If you take it, the case ends with a judgment for that amount. If you don’t, and you don’t do better at trial, you may end up on the hook for our post-offer costs (and in some contexts, potentially our fees).”
We filed a nominal $500 offer. Not because we thought Spareroom had real exposure anywhere near the six-figure number in the complaint, but precisely because we’re comfortable in this area of copyright law and were prepared to stand behind our analysis. The offer was open for 14 days.
We then went to mediation, laid out the law and the facts, and let the dust settle.
Within 24 hours of the mediation, the plaintiff accepted our $500 Offer of Judgment.
The case ended with:
- a $500 judgment,
- no admission of liability, and
- no confidentiality clause.
For Spareroom, this wasn’t just about “winning” this one case. It was about sending a clear signal: if you’re a platform built on user-generated content and the law is on your side, you don’t have to treat every copyright complaint like a six-figure problem.
Our IP team loves this result not just because of the number, but because it shows how combining deep subject-matter expertise with smart procedural tools can turn a scary-looking complaint into a controlled, predictable outcome.
If you run a platform or marketplace and are seeing copyright claims over user content, our IP Litigation team is here to help you manage the risk.