## Facts

- Random House entered author-publisher agreements decades earlier granting it the exclusive right to “print, publish and sell” certain works “in book form.”
- The agreements did not expressly address electronic, digital, or ebook rights and separately treated other exploitation rights in specific provisions.
- Rosetta Books, an electronic publisher, later contracted directly with several of the same authors to publish specified works in digital format over the internet.
- Rosetta sold downloadable ebooks readable on a computer or electronic device using dedicated software.
- Random House sued Rosetta for copyright infringement and tortious interference and sought a preliminary injunction to stop Rosetta from selling ebook editions of eight identified titles.
- The district court addressed only the request for preliminary injunctive relief.

## Issues

1. Whether Random House was likely to prove that contract language granting the exclusive right to “print, publish and sell the work in book form” includes the right to publish and sell ebooks.
2. Whether, under the preliminary-injunction standard, Random House showed irreparable harm and either a likelihood of success on the merits or sufficiently serious questions plus a balance of hardships favoring injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The court denied Random House’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
- It held that the contractual right to “print, publish and sell” the works “in book form” did not include the right to publish the works as ebooks.
- Because Random House did not show a likelihood of success on the merits of its infringement theory, the presumption of irreparable harm tied to likely infringement did not carry the motion.
- The balance of hardships weighed against an injunction because enjoining ebook sales could severely impair or effectively end Rosetta’s business, while denial primarily risked harm to Random House’s control and goodwill.
- On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed, concluding the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying preliminary relief.

## Legal Principles

- A preliminary injunction requires irreparable harm and either (a) a likelihood of success on the merits or (b) sufficiently serious questions on the merits plus a balance of hardships tipping decidedly toward the movant.
- In copyright cases, likely infringement can support a presumption of irreparable harm; when the movant fails to show likely infringement, that presumption is not established.
- Contract grants are construed according to their text and structure; a grant to publish “in book form” is not treated as an open-ended transfer of rights to exploit the work in later-developed formats.
- Courts generally will not expand legacy publishing contracts to cover new technologies where the contractual language and context indicate a limited, format-specific grant and where other provisions reflect enumerated allocations of distinct rights.

## Conclusion

The court refused to enjoin Rosetta’s ebook sales because Random House’s older author contracts granting rights to publish “in book form” were interpreted as covering traditional printed books, not ebooks, leaving Random House unable to show the likelihood of success needed for preliminary injunctive relief.


Random House, Inc. v. Rosetta Books LLC, 150 F. Supp. 2d 613 (S.D.N.Y. 2001)