Rockefeller Photos sues Quality Foods d/b/a Kuhn's Market over food photographs

The complaint

Rockefeller Photos, LLC v. Quality Foods Corporation d/b/a Kuhn's Market, No. 2:26-cv-02376 (W.D. Pa.), was filed November 3, 2026, ECF No. 1 (9 pages). Rockefeller Photos is a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Quality Foods Corporation, doing business as Kuhn's Market, is described as a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal place of business in Pittsburgh that owns and operates eight supermarkets in Pennsylvania. A November 4, 2026 docket minute entry shows Magistrate Judge Kezia O.L. Taylor presiding.

The works

The complaint alleges that Prepared Food Photos, Inc., formerly Adlife Marketing & Communications Co., Inc., one of the photography agencies Rockefeller Photos represents, owns about 18,000 food photographs created by its staff photographers, that one or more of those photographers created the food photographs comprising the Work, and that Prepared Food Photos registered each photograph and owns them, with registration certificates attached as Exhibit B and a spreadsheet identifying each photograph, registration number, and accused display attached as Exhibit A. It alleges that under a December 12, 2024 agency agreement Prepared Food Photos made Rockefeller Photos the exclusive licensor and distributor of its image library and conveyed the exclusive right to pursue infringement claims, including for infringements that began before the agreement was signed.

What the complaint alleges

The complaint alleges that the defendant advertises through its website and social media, citing its Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest accounts, and that on multiple dates after registration it displayed each photograph comprising the Work on its website, social media, and/or printed media to advertise its business, that it was never licensed to use the Work, and, upon information and belief, that it located copies on the internet and copied them for commercial use. It alleges Rockefeller Photos and/or Prepared Food Photos first discovered unauthorized use of one or more of the photographs in January 2025 and then notified the defendant in writing. It alleges the infringement was willful, pointing to the defendant's alleged refusal or failure to remove the Work after multiple phone and email communications, and that at least one of the photographs was still published when the complaint was filed.

Claims and relief

The sole count is copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. The prayer seeks declarations of infringement and willfulness; actual damages and disgorgement of profits or, at plaintiff's election, statutory damages for each photograph comprising the Work; costs and attorneys' fees under 17 U.S.C. § 505; interest; a permanent injunction under § 502; and other relief.