Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently denied Plaintiff’s motion to reconsider a prior dismissal of his privacy action due to untimeliness. In a case titled Bonilla, et al. v. Ancestry.com Operations Inc., et al., No. 20-cv-7390 (N.D. Ill.), Plaintiff alleged that consumer DNA network Ancestry DNA violated the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (“IRPA”) when it uploaded his high school yearbook photo to its website. The Court initially granted Ancestry’s motion for summary judgment, finding Plaintiff’s claims to be time-barred under the applicable one-year limitations period. Upon reconsideration, Plaintiff – unsuccessfully – made a first-of-its-kind argument that the Court should apply the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act’s five-year statute of limitations to the IRPA.
