Statute of Limitations for Copyright Infringement: Deadlines and Damages

The statute of limitations for copyright infringement gives you three years to file a civil lawsuit and gives federal prosecutors five years to bring criminal charges. Both deadlines come from 17 U.S.C. § 507.¹ The hard part is figuring out when the clock actually starts, because federal courts split on that question, and the answer can turn a strong case into a dead one.

When the Three-Year Clock Starts

Section 507(b) says a civil claim must be filed within three years after it “accrued.” Courts have taken two different views of what accrual means.

The Injury Rule

Under the injury rule, the clock starts the moment infringement happens, whether you know about it or not. A photograph copied on January 1, 2023 produces a claim that expires January 1, 2026, even if you never saw the copy. This approach puts the burden on copyright owners to monitor the market for unauthorized use.

The Discovery Rule

The discovery rule starts the clock when you discovered the infringement, or when you reasonably should have discovered it. Courts applying this rule ask whether you were reasonably diligent. You are not required to run daily searches or hire investigators, but you cannot ignore signs that would prompt a reasonable person to investigate. If a competitor sells products featuring your artwork at a trade show you attend each year, a court can find you were on inquiry notice even if you did not personally see the booth.

The Supreme Court Has Not Picked a Side

Most federal circuits currently apply the discovery rule, but the Supreme Court has never resolved the split. In Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy (2024), the Court said it was “assuming without deciding” that the discovery rule applied, because the defendant had not challenged that issue.² Which rule applies to your case depends on the circuit where it is filed, and a future decision could change the picture.

Repeated Infringement Resets the Clock Each Time

When infringement happens again and again over a long period, each act carries its own three-year deadline. This is the separate accrual rule.¹ If a website has posted your copyrighted image every day for four years, you may be too late to sue over the earliest postings, but every posting within the last three years still supports a claim. The Supreme Court endorsed this framework in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (2014).³

Damages for Infringement Older Than Three Years

Once a claim is timely, how far back can your damages reach? Several circuits used to cap recovery at the three years immediately before the lawsuit, even when the plaintiff could not have known about the infringement earlier.

The Supreme Court rejected that cap in Warner Chappell. The Court held that if a copyright owner files a timely claim, the Copyright Act places no separate time-based limit on monetary recovery.² A songwriter who discovers in 2026 that their music has been used without permission since 2015 can potentially recover damages all the way back to 2015, as long as the suit itself is filed within three years of discovery. That rule now controls in circuits applying the discovery rule.

When the Deadline Pauses

Courts can toll the three-year period in narrow circumstances, and the copyright owner carries the burden of justifying it.

The most recognized basis is fraudulent concealment. If the infringer took active steps to hide the infringement, a court may pause the clock until the owner could reasonably have detected the fraud. A contractor who buries copied proprietary code deep in an encrypted system to avoid detection is the kind of defendant this doctrine targets. Infringement that simply goes unnoticed does not qualify; concealment has to be deliberate.

Courts may also toll the deadline during periods of legal incapacity, such as when the copyright owner is a minor or is mentally incapacitated. The clock resumes once the disability is removed. These situations are rare and require clear evidence that the plaintiff was genuinely unable to protect their rights.

Laches Cannot Kill a Timely Claim

Laches is a separate equitable defense: the argument that you waited so long that letting the case proceed would be unfair. To succeed, a defendant has to show both an unreasonable delay and real prejudice from it, such as lost evidence or business investments that would not have been made if the suit had come sooner.

The Supreme Court set a firm limit on that defense in Petrella: laches cannot bar a copyright damages claim filed within the three-year statute of limitations.³ File on time, and delay alone will not get the case thrown out. The Court left open the possibility that laches could limit specific equitable remedies like injunctions in extreme cases, but it cannot eliminate a timely damages claim.

You Must Register Before You Can File Suit

A deadline that often catches owners by surprise sits outside the limitations statute itself. You cannot file a federal infringement lawsuit until the U.S. Copyright Office has acted on your registration application. Submitting the application is not enough; the Office must grant or refuse it.⁴

The Supreme Court confirmed this reading in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC (2019), holding unanimously that “registration” means the Office’s act of granting or refusing the application.⁵ If the Office refuses, you can still sue, but you have to serve notice on the Register of Copyrights with a copy of the complaint.

Processing time is the practical problem. As of early 2026, online applications with digital uploads average about 3.6 months when no correspondence is needed, and paper applications can take more than six months.⁶ Applications that trigger back-and-forth with the Office run longer. If your three-year window is closing, those months can decide whether you have a case at all. Register works early, ideally before any infringement occurs.

The Criminal Deadline Is Five Years

Copyright infringement can be prosecuted as a federal crime when it is willful and committed on a commercial scale. The government has five years from the date the cause of action arose to bring charges.¹ Criminal cases are brought by federal prosecutors, not by private copyright owners.

If the Clock Is Running Out, Consider a DMCA Takedown

A federal lawsuit is not the only option, and when timing is tight it may not be the best one. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512, you can send a written takedown notice to the service provider hosting the infringing content, and the provider must remove the content promptly to keep its safe harbor from liability.⁷

A valid notice has to identify the copyrighted work, identify the infringing material with enough detail for the provider to find it, and include a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized. It costs nothing to send and does not require registration or a lawyer. The person who posted the material can file a counter-notification, and if they do, the provider will restore the content unless you file a lawsuit within 10 to 14 business days.

Takedowns will not get you money damages, and they only work for content hosted by covered service providers. The three-year statute of limitations does not apply to takedown requests themselves. If stopping the infringement matters more than recovering damages, a takedown can resolve in days what litigation takes months or years to resolve.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S.C. 507 – Limitations on Actions
2
Supreme Court of the United States. Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, No. 22-1078
3
Justia. Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 572 U.S. 663
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S.C. 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions
5
Justia. Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. ___
6
U.S. Copyright Office. Registration Processing Times FAQs
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S.C. 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online