IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT—E.D.N.Y.: Dispute over legacy of a famous pool shark leaves a father out of pocket, (Mar 31, 2025)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

His son will not have to pay statutory damages or attorney fees in a bitter generational dispute.

A writer who claims that his son purloined his manuscript and published it under his own name would not be entitled to statutory damages or attorney fees because the son began exchanging copies of the manuscript with his publisher before the work was registered, the federal court for Brooklyn has held. The court, in wading into an intergenerational copyright dispute over the legacy of a trailblazing billiards player once described as “the Jackie Robinson of pool,” emphasized that the pre-registration exchange of copies was sufficient to thwart the claim for statutory damages and fees even though the manuscript was not publicly distributed until the registration became effective (Murphy v. Murphy, No. 1:20-cv-02388-JRC (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2025)).

The lawsuit spans three different generations within the same family. Cisero Murphy Sr. was a professional billiards player and the first African American to win world and U.S. national billiards championships. His son, Cisero Murphy Jr., alleges that he researched and wrote a biography of his father. He also alleges that his own son, Tyriek Murphy, stole the manuscript out of his car and then published and sold the work as his own creation under the name Big City Nights: The Autobiography of The Legendary Cisero Murphy. Tyriek, on the other hand, tells a different story: according to him, he wrote the biography and dictated it to his father—who in turn re-copied it by hand and falsely registered it, under the name Big City Knights, under his own name.

Murphy Jr. sued his son, Tyriek, for copyright infringement, unjust enrichment, and several other common law claims. Tyriek, in turn, filed a counterclaim against his father for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and additional common law claims. Both parties moved for summary judgment on aspects of the copyright infringement claim, leading to this opinion.

Ownership of copyright. The court first refused to grant Murphy Jr.’s motion for summary judgment on ownership of the copyright in the manuscript. To be sure, the court noted, Murphy Jr. had successfully registered the work with the Copyright Office—giving him a presumptive claim to ownership under the law. But Tyriek had brought sufficient evidence to get to the jury on the issue, the court found. For one thing, the court noted, Tyriek had successfully registered his own copyright in his version of the manuscript. Moreover, the court noted, the son testified that he wrote the manuscript independently and that his father’s involvement was limited to typing portions of the manuscript that were dictated during a time when his computer was broken. Ultimately, the court emphasized, the case boiled down to a case of “he said/he said”—a classic matter of credibility for the trier of fact. The issue of ownership would have to be left for trial.

Damages. The son also ran the table on damages, the court found. Because Murphy Jr. did not address his son’s challenge to actual damages in his summary judgment, the court found, he had abandoned any claim for those damages. As to statutory damages and attorney fees, the court found, he registered his copyright too late. Under the Copyright Act, the court noted, a plaintiff is eligible to recover statutory damages only for infringement that begins prior to the registration. Here, the court noted, Tyriek did not begin publicly distributing the manuscript until August 2017, several months after the effective date of the registration. But Tyriek had sent a copy of his manuscript to his publisher, and started exchanging edits, the court noted, before the effective date of the registration. The fact that this “pre-registration” was different kind from the post-registration conduct, the court found, did not change the outcome. Statutory damages and attorney fees would be ruled out.

The Case is No. 1:20-cv-02388-JRC.

Judge: Cho, J.

Attorneys: Alexander Martin Dudelson (Law Offices of Alexander M. Dudelson) for Cisero K. Murphy, Jr. Douglas R. Nemec (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP) for Tyriek A. Murphy.

Cases: Copyright NewYorkNews GCNNews