No. 08-1296
Daniel P. Schrock, d/b/a
Dan Schrock Photography,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Learning Curve International, Inc.,
RC2 Brands, Inc., and HIT Entertainment,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
No. 04 C 6927—Milton I. Shadur, Judge.
Argued September 9, 2008—Decided November 5, 2009
Before Flaum, Williams, and Sykes, Circuit Judges.
Sykes, Circuit Judge. HIT Entertainment (“HIT”) owns the copyright to the popular “Thomas & Friends” train characters, and it licensed Learning Curve International (“Learning Curve”) to make toy figures of its characters. Learning Curve in turn hired Daniel Schrock, a professional photographer, to take pictures of the toys for
