## Facts

- Paramount owned copyrights associated with *Star Trek* and sued Carol Publishing Group and author Sam Ramer for copyright infringement based on the book *The Joy of Trek*.
- Before the injunction, Carol Publishing shipped nearly 6,000 copies to distributors and retailers on a return basis (unsold copies could be returned later).
- After a preliminary injunction issued barring the defendants from further printing, distributing, marketing, or selling the book, some non-party distributors and retailers continued selling existing inventory.
- Paramount sought a supplemental order clarifying that the injunction bound those non-parties and required Carol Publishing to notify them and secure compliance.
- Carol Publishing argued the injunction should not be expanded to impose affirmative enforcement obligations regarding non-parties’ conduct.

## Issues

1. Whether a preliminary injunction entered against a publisher and author can bind non-party distributors and retailers selling existing inventory as persons “acting in concert or participation” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d).
2. Whether the enjoined publisher must take reasonable steps to notify non-party distributors and retailers of the injunction and request cessation of sales.

## Decision

- The court granted the requested supplemental relief in substantial part.
- The court held that non-party distributors and retailers are bound by the injunction if they have actual notice and are acting in active concert or participation with the defendants.
- The court ordered Carol Publishing to take reasonable steps to notify its distributors and retailers of the injunction and to request that they cease sales of *The Joy of Trek*.
- The supplemental order clarified and enforced the existing preliminary injunction without making the distributors and retailers formal parties or adjudicating their independent liability.

## Legal Principles

- Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d), an injunction binds parties and, with actual notice, non-parties who are in active concert or participation with the parties.
- Rule 65(d) does not authorize injunctions against the public at large; binding effect on non-parties requires both notice and concerted action.
- A distribution relationship supporting continued sales of enjoined material can constitute “active concert or participation” once the non-party has actual notice.
- A court may require an enjoined defendant to take reasonable measures to transmit notice through its distribution chain to make enforcement effective, while stopping short of directly adjudicating non-parties’ rights absent joinder.

## Conclusion

The court clarified that a copyright preliminary injunction can reach distributors and retailers only to the extent Rule 65(d) is satisfied—actual notice plus active concert with the enjoined defendants—and it required the publisher to provide notice and request that downstream sellers stop sales, as a reasonable enforcement measure consistent with non-party limits.


Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Carol Publ’g Grp., Inc., 25 F. Supp. 2d 372 (S.D.N.Y. 1998)