11th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Civil) 9.17

If you’re persuaded that [name of plaintiff] owns a valid copyright, you can

consider whether [name of defendant] improperly copied [name of plaintiff]’s

copyrighted material. It is the burden of [name of plaintiff] to show that [name of

defendant] infringed on [his/her/its] valid copyright. This is called “infringement”

of a copyright. [Name of plaintiff] must show that [name of defendant] infringed

on [his/her/its] valid copyright.

In this case, [name of plaintiff] claims that [name of defendant] infringed

[his/her/its] copyright in [name of plaintiff’s copyrighted work] by copying part[s]

of it and including the copied material in [name of defendant]’s work, [name of

defendant’s copyrighted work]. To succeed on this claim, [name of plaintiff] must

prove that [name of defendant] copied the part[s] of [name of plaintiff]’s

copyrighted work that the law protects.

There are two ways in which [name of plaintiff] can prove a claim of

copyright infringement.

First, [name of plaintiff] can show direct evidence that [name of defendant]

actually copied the copyrighted material. For example, [name of plaintiff] could

introduce believable eyewitness testimony or an admission by [name of defendant].

Such direct evidence is rare.

2

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