Spotlight: Columbia’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and The Arts reveals new Visual Art Infringement Database
June 30, 2025
By Ava Mandele
The legal concepts in copyright cases can be complicated to understand. Lawyers, students and academics alike can struggle to come up with a definitive criteria for what constitutes copyrightable material. Consequently, intensive case research is required in order to achieve a robust understanding of copyright in the US. However, with dozens of copyright cases tried each year, it can be hard to know where to start.[1]
On March 3, 2025 Columbia University’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts announced the development of the Visual Art Infringement Database (VAID).[2] The database, inspired by Columbia’s Music Copyright Infringement resource, was created to educate members of both the academic and artistic communities about issues involving copyright and visual arts.[3]
Unlike many existing databases, the VAID places an emphasis on showcasing the disputed images.[4] The purpose of this feature is to supplement the courts’ textual descriptions of disputed images in order to provide users with a clearer comprehension of legal conflicts.[5]
Currently, the VAID features over 40 cases split between settled and decided cases.[6] The database includes many landmark cases that played a critical role in shaping American copyright law including Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony and Rogers v. Koons. The interface provides users with a table that includes key information about the dispute including the year, case name, thumbnails of the disputed images, the mediums of both the plaintiff’s and defendant’s work, and the legal issue.[7] However, the Center plans to add more cases to the database in the future.
“The website is a dynamic resource and we are continuing to expand the database both newly decided cases as well as older cases,” stated Kernochan Center fellow Caitlin McGrail.[8]
Users are able to click each entry in the table for an overview of the dispute, a case summary and the case’s full text.[9] The case summaries provide users with the basic facts of the case along with the court’s decision and a short description of the court’s reasoning.[10] Some of the entries provide additional relevant information including examples of prior art examples and links to the artists’ websites.
On a separate page the website houses an image verison of the database, called the Paris Index, that allows users to search, filter and sort through cases utilizing the display of the disputed case images.[11]
To learn more about the Kernochan Center or the Visual Art Infringement database visit https://www.artinfringementdatabase.org/.
To access more copyright and art law case summaries, please visit the Center for Art Law’s case law database with almost a thousand entries and more to come.
About the Author
Ava Mandele is a legal intern at the Center for Art Law. She holds an undergraduate business degree from the University of Miami (‘22) and is currently in her final year of law school at the University of Iowa College of Law.
Select Sources:
- Quick Facts – Copyright and Trademark Offenses, United States Sentencing Commission, https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/copyright-and-trademark-infringement (last visited June 30, 2025). ↑
- The Visual Arts Infringement Database, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, https://kernochan.law.columbia.edu/ (last visited June 3, 2025). ↑
- About, The Visual Arts Infringement Database, https://www.artinfringementdatabase.org/about (last visited June 3, 2025). ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Decided Cases, The Visual Arts Infringement Database, https://www.artinfringementdatabase.org/decided-cases-page (last visited June 3, 2025) ↑
- Id. ↑
- Email Interview with Caitlin M. McGrail, Fellow, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts (June 12, 2025). ↑
- Lynch v. Chanel, Inc., The Visual Arts Infringement Database, https://www.artinfringementdatabase.org/case/lynch-v-chanel-inc (last visited June 3, 2025) ↑
- Id. ↑
- Image Paris Index, The Visual Arts Infringement Database, https://www.artinfringementdatabase.org/pairs-index (last visited June 3, 2025) ↑
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not meant to provide legal advice. Readers should not construe or rely on any comment or statement in this article as legal advice. For legal advice, readers should seek a consultation with an attorney.
You must be logged in to post a comment.