Mercedes hits back at street art infringement claims

German carmaker Mercedes Benz has filed a series of civil actions seeking declaratory judgment that it did not infringe graffiti artists’ copyright in a marketing campaign for its G 500 Series truck.

Mercedes Benz USA filed the requests in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Friday, March 29.

In January 2018, the car maker posted photos to its Instagram account featuring its G 500 truck in the city of Detroit. Included in the background of the photos were murals and graffiti by street artists, all of which Mercedes said were “partially blurred”.

According to Mercedes, the artists contacted the company in March 2019 threatening to file lawsuits for copyright infringement.

Mercedes said it “immediately removed” the Instagram posts out of courtesy, but has nonetheless been subject to continued threats and an “aggressive shakedown”.

In each of the suits, the company is seeking declaratory judgment of non-infringement and fair use.

Mercedes said that it “transformed the aesthetic and meaning” of each of the artworks. The carmaker claimed that it photographed each of the works from “an oblique angle” in a way “designed to draw the viewer’s focus immediately to the G 500, not the mural”.

The company also argued that its promotional posts were targeting a fundamentally different audience than the artworks in question.

The murals “cannot reasonably be perceived to communicate messages about the versatility of the G 500, off-road cars driving in the city, or any other message that substantially overlaps with MBUSA’s Instagram post”, Mercedes argued.

Mercedes is seeking an award of costs and fees in each of the cases.