When Data are Scarce: Settlement Strategies from a Damages Expert

Michael A. Einhorn
2008 Social Science Research Network  
In spring 2007, I had the opportunity to assist a freelance artist in Tallahassee, Florida, to obtain a fair settlement for infringement of seven copyrighted cartoon characters that she owned. A number of critical complications confounded an otherwise standard expert valuation of damages. As a consequence of a copyright infringement, an aspiring cartoonist lost considerable but nonquantifiable opportunities to market her very popular images in a wide number of derivative uses. Moreover, the
more » ... inger was a nonprofit government agency that used the materials in educational products and web postings that were made freely available to the public. With scarce data, the matter for an expert here was to work out a fair settlement in alternative dispute resolution in order to avoid costly and uncertain court proceedings.  At mae@mediatechcopy.com, http://www.mediatechcopy.com. Complete professional biography can be found in appendix. The author is an economic consultant and expert witness in the areas of intellectual property, media, entertainment, and product design. He is the author of Media, Technology, and Copyright: Integrating Law and Economics (2004) and over seventy related professional articles in intellectual property, economic analysis, and damage valuation. He is also a former professor of economics at Rutgers University. A complete professional biography can be found in the appendix . 973-618-1212 MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY, COPYRIGHT elsewhere. This would allow her to capitalize further on the public recognition of the state's continuing use, a considerable advantage to building product awareness. This "win-win" settlement was more beneficial to both parties than more limited or costly remedies that might have arisen in litigation. The settlement outcome also went beyond the more restrained procedural techniques that would necessarily have confined a formal expert report presented before the court. In such a manner of dispute resolution, experts can play a general role as negotiators by focusing on practical solutions and steering the parties toward mutual accommodation rather than positional bargaining. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael A. Einhorn (mae@mediatechcopy.com,
doi:10.2139/ssrn.1611284 fatcat:3yi2ag375jchje5vph6n7ih6qa