Rockefeller Photos sues La Placita Supermarket and circular printer Starprint over food photographs

The complaint

Rockefeller Photos, LLC v. La Placita Supermarket, Inc. and Starprint Publications, Inc., No. 2:26-cv-12564 (D.N.J.), was filed September 23, 2026 (9 pages). Rockefeller is a Delaware limited liability company based in Miami-Dade County, Florida. La Placita is a New Jersey corporation based in Union City, New Jersey, that operates supermarkets, and Starprint is a Pennsylvania corporation that the complaint says designs and prints weekly circulars for grocery stores. A docket entry the same day assigns the case to Judge Claire C. Cecchi and Magistrate Judge James B. Clark. (Compl. paras. 1 to 3, 16, 18; Docket.)

The works

The complaint alleges that photographers employed by Prepared Food Photos, Inc., formerly Adlife Marketing & Communications Co., Inc., created multiple photographs of food items, that Prepared Food Photos registered and owns each of them, and that on December 12, 2024 it signed an agency agreement giving Rockefeller the exclusive right to license the works and to pursue infringement claims. Exhibit A lists each photograph and its registration number. (Compl. paras. 7 to 13.)

What it alleges

The complaint alleges, upon information and belief, that under a contract between the defendants Starprint created flyers or advertisements that the defendants then published to market La Placita, and alleges that on multiple dates between 2024 and 2025 the defendants displayed the photographs on La Placita's website, social media, or print media without a license. It alleges, upon information and belief, that the defendants found the photographs on the internet and copied them, that Rockefeller or Prepared Food Photos first discovered the use in June 2025 and notified La Placita in writing, and that the infringement was willful, pointing in part to a copyright notice on La Placita's website. (Compl. paras. 19 to 25, 34.)

The count and relief

Count I pleads copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. 501, direct, vicarious, and/or contributory. The prayer asks for declarations of infringement and willfulness, actual damages and profits or, at Rockefeller's election, statutory damages for each photograph, costs and fees, interest, and a permanent injunction. (Compl. paras. 27 to 39; Prayer a to g.)

On the docket

The docket shows summonses returned executed, appearances of counsel, an extension of time to answer, a later clerk's order application to extend the answer deadline, and an updated answer deadline entered October 14, 2026. (Docket, ECF Nos. 5 to 12.)