Copyright protection for geographic codesA starting point would be to look
at Southco v. Kanebridge, 390 F.3d 276 (3rd Cir. 2004)(en banc)(Alito J.) in
which the court found that the numbers in a parts numbering system used by a
manufacturer were not copyrightable. The court basically held that apart
from the system (which is not copyrightable), the numbers were not original.
It also found that the parts numbers were analogous to words or short
phrases, which are not protectable.
William T. McGrath
Davis McGrath LLC
125 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 1700
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: (312)332-4748
Fax: (312)332-6376
-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
[mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org]On Behalf Of Joy Butler
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 5:35 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property
Subject: [CNI-(C)] Copyright protection for geographic codes
Can anyone offer insight on the copyright eligibility of geographic codes used by Arbitron, Nielsen and similar rating services (e.g., 515 is the code for Cincinnati, Ohio)? Citations to relevant or analogous case law would also be welcome.
Thanks,
Joy Butler
Law Office of Joy R. Butler
Washington, DC
Website: http://www.joybutler.com Received on Thu Feb 22 2007 - 03:00:55 GMT
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