## Facts

- Perfect 10 produced and copyrighted nude model photographs, monetizing them primarily through a password-protected subscription website.
- Google operated a web search engine, image search (displaying thumbnails and links), a webpage caching feature, and the Blogger platform.
- Perfect 10 alleged Google’s image search, linking, caching, Blogger hosting, and forwarding of DMCA notices to a public repository enabled free access to Perfect 10 images and contributed to online infringement.
- Perfect 10 claimed severe revenue decline and near-bankruptcy, attributing much of the harm to Google’s services and continued availability of infringing URLs.
- Perfect 10 sought a preliminary injunction based on copyright infringement and alleged violations of assigned rights of publicity.
- The district court denied preliminary relief, concluding Perfect 10 failed to show likely irreparable harm absent an injunction.

## Issues

1. Whether Perfect 10 established the prerequisites for a preliminary injunction, particularly a likelihood of irreparable harm absent relief.
2. Whether post-eBay equitable principles permit a presumption of irreparable harm in copyright cases upon a showing of likely success.
3. Whether Perfect 10 showed a sufficient causal connection between its alleged business injury and Google’s challenged services (search, thumbnails/linking, caching, Blogger, and DMCA-notice forwarding).

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction.
- The court held Perfect 10 failed to demonstrate likely irreparable harm because it did not show a sufficient causal nexus between Google’s conduct and the alleged injury to Perfect 10’s business.
- The court rejected reliance on any categorical presumption of irreparable harm and required actual evidence of likely irreparable injury.
- Because the irreparable-harm showing was independently insufficient, the court did not need to resolve all contested merits questions regarding infringement theories or DMCA safe-harbor arguments at the preliminary-injunction stage.

## Legal Principles

- A preliminary injunction requires proof of: (1) likelihood of success on the merits, (2) likely irreparable harm absent relief, (3) balance of equities, and (4) public interest.
- After eBay, courts may not presume irreparable harm in copyright cases from a likelihood of success; the movant must present evidence that irreparable injury is likely.
- To obtain preliminary injunctive relief, a plaintiff must show a causal connection between the defendant’s challenged conduct and the claimed irreparable harm; evidence of general financial decline or widespread infringement is insufficient without tying the harm to the defendant.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit upheld denial of preliminary relief because Perfect 10’s evidence of declining revenues and online infringement did not show that Google’s search-related functions, caching, Blogger, or DMCA-notice forwarding likely caused irreparable harm that an injunction would prevent.


Perfect 10, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 653 F.3d 976 (9th Cir. 2011)