Shoichi Matsumoto and Shen Chen v. Canuck Eats Inc., 2025 FC 2017
Justice Furlanetto - 2025-12-22
Read full decision. Automatically generated summary:
This is a motion brought by content creators and professional photographers, Matsumoto and Chen, for default judgment against the Defendant Canuck Eats, pursuant to Rule 210 and Rule 369 of the Federal Courts Rules. ... The Plaintiffs claim copyright in the 13 photographs. The underlying action relates to allegations of copyright and moral rights infringement from alleged unauthorized reproduction of the Works on the food delivery service website. This is the second motion for default judgment brought by the Plaintiffs. In the order from the first motion, I found the evidence established that the Defendant was in default but there was insufficient evidence to grant judgment. As set out below, there continues to be issues with the evidence provided as it relates to the standing of Chen to seek judgment. As such, the judgment requested can only be granted in part. ... With respect to paragraph 28.2(1)(a), the Plaintiffs assert the Defendant infringed their moral rights by cropping, resizing, and altering the Works. However, when visually comparing the screenshots provided to the photographs on the Matsumoto Blog and the JOC Blog, any cropping or resizing appears minimal. While the quality of the images in the screenshots is not as sharp and clear as the original images, the graphics on the whole website have the same look. In addition to the points already noted on lack of objective evidence, I cannot conclude that distortion or mutilation of the images occurred. ... Considering the nature of the evidence before me, it is my view that a damage award of $3,000 CAD per photograph is more consistent than the $6,000 per photograph requested. As such, I award a total damage award of $6,000 CAD to Matsumoto for infringement of the two photographs.
Decision relates to:
- T-1379-24 - SHOICHI MATSUMOTO et al v. CANUCK EATS INC.