Rockefeller Photos sues Brother's Pizza - Greencastle over a chicken parmesan photograph

The complaint

Rockefeller Photos, LLC v. Brother's Pizza - Greencastle, LLC, No. 1:26-cv-02545-YK (M.D. Pa.), is a ten-page complaint filed September 4, 2026, ECF No. 1.

The parties and the photograph

Rockefeller Photos is described as a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The complaint alleges that Prepared Food Photos, Inc., formerly Adlife Marketing & Communications Co., Inc., through a staff photographer, created a photograph of chicken parmesan over spaghetti titled ChickenParmesan020, 08-14-2005, and that the company registered it and owns it. It alleges that under a December 12, 2024 agency agreement the company made Rockefeller Photos the exclusive licensor and distributor of its image library and conveyed to it the exclusive right to pursue infringement claims. Brother's Pizza - Greencastle is described as a Pennsylvania limited liability company that operates a pizza and Italian restaurant in Greencastle.

What it alleges

The complaint alleges that in March 2023 the restaurant displayed the photograph on its website, social media, and/or printed media to advertise its business without a license, and, on information and belief, that it found the photograph on the internet and copied it. It alleges that Rockefeller Photos and/or Prepared Food Photos discovered the use on April 16, 2024 and notified the restaurant in writing. The single count pleads direct, vicarious, and/or contributory copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501 and alleges the infringement was willful, pointing to the copyright notice on the restaurant's website and to its alleged failure to remove the photograph after notice.

Rockefeller Photos asks for declarations of infringement and willfulness, actual damages and profits or, at its election, statutory damages, attorneys' fees and costs under 17 U.S.C. § 505, interest, and a permanent injunction.

On the docket

A summons issued on September 4, 2026, and a report on the filing of a copyright action went to the Register of Copyrights the same day.