Appeals court sides with Jeff Koons in copyright-infringement dispute over ‘Made in Heaven’ series

On 21 July, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court’s February 2025 decision dismissing artist Michael A. Hayden’s copyright-infringement lawsuit against Jeff Koons over works in Koons’s “Made in Heaven” series (1989–91). Hayden alleged that a coiled snake sculpture he made for Ilona Staller (Cicciolina) appeared in several Koons works, but the courts held the claim was time-barred because Hayden “should have discovered” the alleged infringement earlier than 2019, when he said he first became aware of it. Hayden sought copyright registration for his sculpture “Il Serpente for Cicciolina” in 2019 and received it in January 2020, contacted Koons’s lawyers in March 2020, and filed suit in December 2021; the appellate panel did not rule on the merits, focusing instead on the three-year statute of limitations. Judge Denny Chin wrote that while copyright holders need not constantly monitor media, the discovery rule does not allow plaintiffs to ignore widespread international coverage and sue roughly 30 years later; Hayden also raised a DMCA claim tied to the series’ publication on Koons’s website.

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