Inter-Getty tussle in focus

The nonprofit J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty Images Inc., a Seattle-based stock photography company run by the patriarch’s grandson, Mark Getty, have coexisted peacefully for the last two years, selling photographs to different constituencies. According to terms of a 2002 contract -- drafted to avoid confusion over the Getty name -- the trust sells photographs to the public from its museum bookstore and to scholars and publications in private transactions, while Getty Images concentrates on its business clients with occasional sales to individual consumers.

But now it’s a trademark war. The trust filed a lawsuit last week in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, charging that Getty Images’ recent agreement to offer its photographs on Amazon.com violates the contract, infringes upon the trust’s trademark and poses unfair competition.

“We believe that Getty Images is damaging the value of the Getty Trust’s trademarks by selling photographic prints to consumers on Amazon.com and other websites,” says Peter Erichsen, vice president and general counsel of the trust. “This is also a breach-of-contract case. The contract is broadly worded to cover any sales to consumers. It definitely applies to sales on the Web.”

Getty Images, a 9-year-old firm that has rapidly risen to the top of the stock photography industry, said in response that the contract “recognizes our right to do business with consumers on a limited and incidental basis. In the context of our $550-million-plus core business as a business-to-business imagery provider, any direct-to-consumer business we’ve done and are doing is, by definition, limited and incidental.”

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Suzanne Muchnic