Re: Rule of Doubt (Was: Deposit requirements for software copyright registration)

On 3/12/98, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> Are there any actual cases on the consequences of a registration issued
> under the Rule of Doubt? Steve's comment is probably the way it ought to
> come out, in light of the text of 37 CFR 202.20(b)(vii)(B), but I'm not
> aware of any reported use of a Rule of Doubt registration in litigation.

Yep. See Compaq v. Procom 908 FSupp 1409 (DC SDTex 1995). (Copyright registration for "threshold values" for computer hard drive degradation not entitled to presumption of validity because deposit made with registration was not in human-readable form).

The court in that case found that the burden was on the registrant, in the context of litigation, to establish that the copyrighted work was copyrightable.

-Ari

Ari Kahan
<akahan[_at_]netcom.com>

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