Re: Copyright suit if registration rejected?

From: Jeff and Heather Norton <nortons[_at_]erols.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 16:47:59 -0400

Mark E. Wiemelt <candwlaw[_at_]mcs.com> wrote:
>
> If deposit materials are unavailable because the only copy was stolen
> by a putative infrigner and the copyright office refuses registration
> due to the lack of deposit or other indentifying materials, can
> jurisidiction in federal court be obtained for purposed of suiing the
> putative infrigner?
>
> If so, must claimant wait until refusal is received from Copyright Office
> before filing suit?
>
> On a related note, must a Certificate of Registration be obtained before
> filing suit, or does the issuance of a Certificate after suit is filed
> confer jurisdiction which relates back to the filing date?

Hi,

 I believe you are confusing a few separate issues:

(1) Copyright vests in the author of a work immediately upon its creation. (2) Registration, while not necessary, confers benefits on the registrant:

	(a) presumption of copyright in registered work
	(b) statutory damages
	(c) others that I forget at the moment

(3) Subject matter jurisdiction rests not on the registration (or its

    refusal), but on the existence of a 'federal question.' Since the     Copyright laws are federal laws, a copyright case, by definition,     is a federal question and properly adjudicated in a federal court. (4) Winning a copyright case involves proving two things: That you have

    a valid copyright in the work and that the defendant copied the work.     Proving the first proposition does not require the work to be     registered or even for the original to still exist. It is just more     difficult without the original or a copy or a registration.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

Do not seek to follow					Jeff Norton
 in the footsteps of the wise.				nortons[_at_]erols.com 
	Seek instead what they sought.			norton[_at_]moon.jic.com 
				- Basho			law[_at_]moon.jic.com 

Received on Tue Jul 01 1997 - 20:46:32 GMT