Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp.

1940 United States Supreme Court case

Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 8–9, 1940 Decided March 25, 1940
Full case name	Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp.
Citations	309 U.S. 390 (more) 60 S. Ct. 681; 84 L. Ed. 825
Holding
In the case of an unauthorized adaptation, courts may elect to award only a portion of an infringer's profits to the plaintiff. The proportion that the defendant is entitled to keep is in proportion to the amount of original creative work went into the adaptation, and the court may be assisted in determining that by expert witness testimony.
Court membership
Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes Associate Justices James C. McReynolds · Harlan F. Stone Owen Roberts · Hugo Black Stanley F. Reed · Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas · Frank Murphy
Case opinion
Majority	Hughes, joined by unanimous
McReynolds took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 309 U.S. 390 (1940), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held, in the case of an unauthorized adaptation, courts may elect to award only a portion of an infringer's profits to the plaintiff. The proportion that the defendant is entitled to keep is in proportion to the amount of original creative work that went into the adaptation, and the court may be assisted in determining that by expert witness testimony. The Court found that awarding more to the plaintiff "would be to inflict an unauthorized penalty."^[1]

The case involved Metro-Goldwyn using material from the 1930 play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes for the 1932 film Letty Lynton. It was brought before various courts^[2]^[3] before ending up with the Supreme Court, which awarded one fifth of the profits.^[4]

References

^ Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 309 U.S. 390 (1940).
^ "Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, 106 F.2d 45 (2d Cir. 1939)". Justia U.S. Law. Justia. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
^ "Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, 26 F.Supp. 134 (S.D.N.Y. 1938)". Justia Law. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
^ "Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. (1940) - 309 U.S. 390, 60 S. Ct. 681 (1940)". LexisNexis.

External links

Text of Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 309 U.S. 390 (1940) is available from: CourtListener Justia Library of Congress

U.S. Supreme Court Article I case law

Enumeration Clause of Section II
Utah v. Evans (2002) Department of Commerce v. New York (2019) Trump v. New York (2020)

Qualifications Clauses of Sections II and III
Powell v. McCormack (1969) U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) Cook v. Gralike (2001)

Elections Clause of Section IV
Ex parte Siebold (1879) Smiley v. Holm (1932) U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015) Moore v. Harper (2023)

Speech or Debate Clause of Section VI
Kilbourn v. Thompson (1881) United States v. Johnson (1966) Gravel v. United States (1972)

Origination Clause of Section VII
Flint v. Stone Tracy Co. (1911) United States v. Munoz-Flores (1990)

Presentment Clause of Section VII
Pocket Veto Case (1929) Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha (1983) Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

Taxing and Spending Clause of Section VIII
Hylton v. United States (1796) Collector v. Day (1871) Springer v. United States (1881) Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895) Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (1916) Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922) United States v. Butler (1936) Helvering v. Davis (1937) South Dakota v. Dole (1987) Sabri v. United States (2004) National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)

Taxing and Spending Clause of Section VIII

Hylton v. United States (1796)
Collector v. Day (1871)
Springer v. United States (1881)
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895)
Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (1916)
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922)
United States v. Butler (1936)
Helvering v. Davis (1937)
South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
Sabri v. United States (2004)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)

Commerce Clause of Section VIII

Dormant Commerce Clause

Brown v. Maryland (1827)
Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co. (1829)
Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1852)
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois (1886)
Swift & Co. v. United States (1905)
George W. Bush & Sons Co. v. Malloy (1925)
Baldwin v. G.A.F. Seelig, Inc. (1935)
Edwards v. California (1941)
Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona (1945)
Dean Milk Co. v. City of Madison (1951)
Miller Bros. Co. v. Maryland (1954)
Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc. (1959)
National Bellas Hess v. Illinois (1967)
Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc. (1970)
Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp. (1976)
Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady (1977)
Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (1977)
City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey (1978)
Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland (1978)
Reeves, Inc. v. Stake (1980)
Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. (1981)
Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas (1982)
White v. Mass. Council of Construction Employers (1983)
South-Central Timber Development, Inc. v. Wunnicke (1984)
Maine v. Taylor (1986)
Healy v. Beer Institute, Inc. (1989)
Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992)
Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt (1992)
Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Oregon (1994)
C&A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown (1994)
West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Healy (1994)
Granholm v. Heald (2005)
United Haulers Ass'n v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority (2007)
Department of Revenue of Kentucky v. Davis (2008)
Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne (2015)
South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (2018)
Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn. v. Thomas (2019)
National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (2023)

Others

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Passenger Cases (1849)
Paul v. Virginia (1869)
Cooper Manufacturing Co. v. Ferguson (1885)
Kidd v. Pearson (1888)
In re Debs (1895)
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895)
Champion v. Ames (1903)
Southern Railway Co. v. United States (1911)
Hoke v. United States (1913)
Houston East & West Texas Railway Co. v. United States (1914)
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen (1923)
A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935)
Gold Clause Cases (1935)
Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan (1935)
Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (1936)
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937)
United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)
McGoldrick v. Berwind-White Coal Mining Co. (1940)
United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941)
United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co. (1942)
Wickard v. Filburn (1942)
United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n (1944)
North American Co. v. SEC (1946)
H.P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond (1949)
Henderson v. United States (1950)
Canton Railroad Co. v. Rogan (1951)
Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964)
Katzenbach v. McClung (1964)
Maryland v. Wirtz (1968)
National League of Cities v. Usery (1976)
Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Association, Inc. (1981)
Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana (1981)
EEOC v. Wyoming (1983)
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)
New York v. United States (1992)
United States v. Lopez (1995)
Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida (1996)
Reno v. Condon (2000)
United States v. Locke (2000)
Jones v. United States (2000)
United States v. Morrison (2000)
Gonzales v. Raich (2005)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)
Taylor v. United States (2016)

Coinage Clause of Section VIII

Legal Tender Cases	Knox v. Lee (1871) Juilliard v. Greenman (1884)

Copyright Act of 1790	Wheaton v. Peters (1834) Paige v. Banks (1872) Globe Newspaper Co. v. Walker (1908)
Patent Act of 1793	Tyler v. Tuel (1810) Evans v. Eaton (1818) Evans v. Eaton (1822) Evans v. Hettich (1822)
Patent infringement case law	Evans v. Jordan (1815) Hollister v. Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co. (1885) Rowell v. Lindsay (1885) Schillinger v. United States (1894) Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell (1913) General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co. (1938)
Patentability case law	Pennock v. Dialogue (1829) Hotchkiss v. Greenwood (1851) O'Reilly v. Morse (1853) Cochrane v. Deener (1876) City of Elizabeth v. American Nicholson Pavement Co. (1878) Egbert v. Lippmann (1881) Consolidated Safety-Valve Co. v. Crosby Steam Gauge & Valve Co. (1885) Voss v. Fisher (1885)
Copyright Act of 1831	Wheaton v. Peters (1834) Backus v. Gould (1849) Stephens v. Cady (1853) Stevens v. Gladding (1854) Little v. Hall (1856) Paige v. Banks (1872) Baker v. Selden (1879) Callaghan v. Myers (1888) Higgins v. Keuffel (1891) Holmes v. Hurst (1899) Brady v. Daly (1899) Bolles v. Outing Co. (1899) Mifflin v. R. H. White Company (1903) Mifflin v. Dutton (1903)
Copyright Act of 1870	Perris v. Hexamer (1879) Trade-Mark Cases (1879) Merrell v. Tice (1881) Schreiber v. Sharpless (1884) Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony (1884) Thornton v. Schreiber (1888) Banks v. Manchester (1888) Callaghan v. Myers (1888) Thompson v. Hubbard (1889) Higgins v. Keuffel (1891) Belford v. Scribner (1892) Brady v. Daly (1899) Bolles v. Outing Co. (1899) Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. (1903) McLoughlin v. Raphael Tuck & Sons Co. (1903) American Tobacco Co. v. Werckmeister (1907) Werckmeister v. American Tobacco Co. (1907) United Dictionary Co. v. G. & C. Merriam Co. (1907) White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. (1908) Dun v. Lumbermen's Credit Ass'n (1908) Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908) Scribner v. Straus (1908) Bong v. Campbell Art Co. (1909) Henry v. A.B. Dick Co. (1912)
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890	Straus v. American Publishers Association (1913) Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. United States (1939) Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941) United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) Broadcast Music, Inc. v. CBS Inc. (1979)
International Copyright Act of 1891	Press Pub. Co. v. Monroe (1896) McLoughlin v. Raphael Tuck & Sons Co. (1903) American Tobacco Co. v. Werckmeister (1907) White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. (1908) Globe Newspaper Co. v. Walker (1908) Bong v. Campbell Art Co. (1909) Caliga v. Inter Ocean Newspaper Co. (1909) Hills and Co. v. Hoover (1911) Kalem Co. v. Harper Bros. (1911)
Copyright Act of 1909	Hills and Co. v. Hoover (1911) DeJonge and Co. v. Breuker & Kessler Co. (1914) Herbert v. Shanley Co. (1917) Manners v. Morosco (1920) Fox Film Corp. v. Knowles (1923) Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Realty Co. (1931) Douglas v. Cunningham (1935) Washingtonian Pub. Co. v. Pearson (1939) Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. (1940) Fred Fisher Music Co. v. M. Witmark & Sons (1943) F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, Inc. (1952) Mazer v. Stein (1954) De Sylva v. Ballentine (1956) Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. (1964) Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States (1973)
Patent misuse case law	Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co. (1917) Morton Salt Co. v. G.S. Suppiger Co. (1942)
Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914	Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941) Dowling v. United States (1985)
Lanham Act	Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc. (1982) San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee (1987) Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. (1992) Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. (1995) College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board (1999) Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. (2001) TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. (2001) Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (2003) Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. (2003) Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014) POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co. (2014) Matal v. Tam (2017) Iancu v. Brunetti (2019) Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc. (2020)
Copyright Act of 1976	Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977) Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (1984) Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder (1985) Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985) Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid (1989) Stewart v. Abend (1990) Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co. (1991) Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. (1994) Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994) Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc. (1996) Quality King Distributors Inc., v. L'anza Research International Inc. (1998) Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (1998) New York Times Co. v. Tasini (2001) Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005) Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick (2010) Golan v. Holder (2012) Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013) Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (2014) American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (2014) Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. (2017) Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com (2019) Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc. (2019) Allen v. Cooper (2020) Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. (2020)
Other copyright cases	American Lithographic Co. v. Werkmeister (1911) Ferris v. Frohman (1912) Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey v. Steinhauser (1914) International News Service v. Associated Press (1918) L. A. Westermann Co. v. Dispatch Printing Co. (1919) Lumiere v. Mae Edna Wilder, Inc. (1923) Educational Films Corp. v. Ward (1931) Fox Film Corp. v. Doyal (1932) George v. Victor Talking Machine Co. (1934) KVOS v. Associated Press (1936) Gibbs v. Buck (1939) Buck v. Gallagher (1939) Commissioner v. Wodehouse (1949) Miller Music Corp. v. Charles N. Daniels, Inc. (1960) Pub. Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover (1962) Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists Television, Inc. (1968) Goldstein v. California (1973) Teleprompter Corp. v. Columbia Broadcasting (1974) Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken (1975)
Other patent cases	Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. (1908) Minerals Separation, Ltd. v. Hyde (1916) United States v. General Electric Co. (1926) United States v. Univis Lens Co. (1942) Altvater v. Freeman (1943) Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp. (1945) Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co. (1948) Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. (1950) Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. (1950) Aro Manufacturing Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co. (1961) Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. (1964) Wilbur-Ellis Co. v. Kuther (1964) Brulotte v. Thys Co. (1964) Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. (1965) Graham v. John Deere Co. (1966) United States v. Adams (1966) Brenner v. Manson (1966) Lear, Inc. v. Adkins (1969) Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co. (1969) Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971) Gottschalk v. Benson (1972) United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd. (1973) Dann v. Johnston (1976) Sakraida v. Ag Pro Inc. (1976) Parker v. Flook (1978) Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980) Diamond v. Diehr (1981) Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc. (1989) Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc. (1990) Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1996) Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co. (1997) Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (1998) Dickinson v. Zurko (1999) Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank (1999) J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (2001) Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (2002) Merck KGaA v. Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd. (2005) eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006) Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. (2006) LabCorp v. Metabolite, Inc. (2006) MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. (2007) KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. (2007) Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. (2007) Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. (2008) Bilski v. Kappos (2010) Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. (2011) Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (2011) Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership (2011) Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (2012) Kappos v. Hyatt (2012) Bowman v. Monsanto Co. (2013) Gunn v. Minton (2013) Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (2013) FTC v. Actavis, Inc. (2013) Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014) Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. (2014) Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc. (2015) Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC (2015) Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (2016) TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (2017) Peter v. NantKwest, Inc. (2019)
Other trademark cases	G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Syndicate Pub. Co. (1915) Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co. (1938) Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V. (2020)

Necessary and Proper Clause of Section VIII
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Lambert v. Yellowley (1926) Sabri v. United States (2004) Gonzales v. Raich (2005) United States v. Comstock (2010) United States v. Kebodeaux (2013)

Habeas corpus Suspension Clause of Section IX
Ex parte Bollman (1807) Ex parte Merryman (1861) Ex parte Endo (1944) Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr (2001) Boumediene v. Bush (2008) Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam (2020)

No Bills of Attainder or Ex post facto Laws Clause of Section IX
Calder v. Bull (1798) Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819) Garner v. Board of Public Works (1851) De Veau v. Braisted (1860) Ex parte Garland (1866) Hawker v. New York (1898) Samuels v. McCurdy (1925) Barr v. City of Columbia (1964) Teague v. Lane (1989) Kansas v. Hendricks (1997) Smith v. Doe (2003)

Contract Clause of Section X

Legal Tender Cases

Hepburn v. Griswold (1870)

Others

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819)
Ogden v. Saunders (1827)
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)
Bronson v. Kinzie (1843)
Stone v. Mississippi (1880)
Smyth v. Ames (1898)
Block v. Hirsh (1921)
Home Building & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell (1934)
W.B. Worthen Co. v. Kavanaugh (1935)
City of El Paso v. Simmons (1965)
U.S. Trust Co. of N.Y. v. New Jersey (1977)
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus (1978)
Energy Reserves Group v. Kansas P. & L. Co. (1983)
Exxon Corp. v. Eagerton (1983)
Keystone Bituminous Coal Ass'n v. DeBenedictis (1987)
Sveen v. Melin (2018)

Import-Export Clause of Section X
Brown v. Maryland (1827) Canton Railroad Co. v. Rogan (1951)

Compact Clause of Section X
Florida v. Georgia (1855) Virginia v. West Virginia (1871) Virginia v. Tennessee (1893) Wharton v. Wise (1894) Northeast Bancorp v. Federal Reserve Board of Governors (1985) New Jersey v. New York (1998) Virginia v. Maryland (2003) Polar Tankers, Inc. v. City of Valdez (2009) Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado (2018)