The complaint
Kelly v. Pipes & Shaw, LLC, No. 2:26-cv-12510 (C.D. Cal.), was filed October 26, 2026. The complaint is Document 1, runs 19 pages, and demands a jury. The plaintiffs are Tony Kelly; Iana Vasileva; Christian Alexander Langaard; and Maria Sol Carou on behalf of the Estate of Tomas Moreno Becerra. The defendants are Pipes & Shaw, LLC doing business as Veronica Beard, a New York limited liability company; Veronica Miele Beard; and Veronica Swanson Beard. The complaint alleges that the two individual defendants are the brand's founders and current principals. It is signed by Lincoln D. Bandlow of Law Offices of Lincoln Bandlow, PC in Los Angeles. It pleads jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1331, 1338, and 1367, and venue under 28 U.S.C. 1391(b) and (c) and 1400(a). (Compl. pp. 1, 19; paras. 11 to 24.)
The photograph and the models
The complaint says Kelly created and published Club Paradiso in Switzerland in 2023 as part of his Alpine Fine Art Series. It describes the photograph as a waiter carrying champagne while skiing off a snow-covered roof over an outdoor bar as a bartender serves champagne to a woman in a fur coat, and says Kelly registered it with the Copyright Office on December 1, 2023, Registration No. VA0002377965. It says the photograph is sold only as signed, numbered prints in an edition of 75, priced from $15,500 to $31,400, through Kelly's gallery in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and that Kelly has never licensed it for advertising or any other commercial use. It identifies Vasileva as the woman in the fur coat, Langaard as the bartender, and Tomas Moreno Becerra as the skiing waiter. Becerra died before the suit was filed, and Sol Carou sues as the successor in interest and authorized personal representative of his estate. (Compl. paras. 5 to 6, 21, 31 to 39, 48.)
What it alleges
The complaint alleges that on or around December 21, 2025, the veronicabeard Instagram account posted the entire photograph with images of two Veronica Beard handbags superimposed on it and a caption asking, "How many VB bags can you find in this vintage carousel?" It alleges that no plaintiff licensed or consented to the use, that the defendants operate and control the account, and, on information and belief, that the defendants or their agents were responsible for the post. It also alleges that a December 12, 2025 post on the same account, showing a model in a short skirt and high heels on skis, copied the look and feel of Kelly's 2019 photographs Backcountry and Backcountry 2, and points to that post as showing that the defendants knew Kelly's work and copied it willfully. (Compl. paras. 9, 53 to 61.)
Kelly brings three counts against all defendants. Count I is for direct copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. 106 and 501 and alleges the infringement was willful. Count II is for vicarious and/or contributory copyright infringement; it alleges, on information and belief, that each defendant can control or supervise the people responsible for the post, and alleges that the two founders own and operate the brand and have a direct financial interest in its revenue. Count III is for violation of Kelly's rights of attribution and integrity under the Visual Artists Rights Act, 17 U.S.C. 106A, and alleges that Club Paradiso is a still photograph produced for exhibition in a signed, consecutively numbered edition of 75. Vasileva, Langaard, and Sol Carou bring three counts against all defendants: false endorsement under 15 U.S.C. 1125 (Count IV), violation of the right of publicity under Cal. Civ. Code 3344 (Count V), and invasion of privacy by appropriation of name or likeness. (Compl. paras. 62 to 106; p. 17.)
Relief sought
The complaint asks for a permanent injunction; an order that the defendants delete infringing copies from the Instagram accounts and devices under their control; Kelly's actual damages and the defendants' profits under 17 U.S.C. 504(a) and (b), or statutory damages under 504(c); Kelly's attorney's fees and costs on the VARA claim; and, for Vasileva, Langaard, and Sol Carou, actual damages, disgorgement of profits, enhanced damages, and attorney's fees and costs under 15 U.S.C. 1117, the greater of statutory or actual damages plus the defendants' profits under Cal. Civ. Code 3344, and damages for the appropriation of the models' likenesses. (Compl. p. 18.)