As most readers know, the Supreme Court held in the 2006 eBay decision that injunctions were no longer to be the norm in patent cases, and irreparable harm was not to be presumed. Instead, injunctions are within the equitable discretion of the district court, and are to be granted only if the plaintiff has shown entitlement under the traditional multi-factor test.

It’s been clear for some time that the same principles now apply in copyright and trademark cases as well. The First Circuit, for instance, addressed eBay in the context of a trademark cases in the Voice of the Arab World decision, and several courts have applied the holding to copyright cases, such as the Second Circuit in the J.D. Salinger case.