Re: copyright in legal documents

On Mon, Oct 25, 1999, Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/25/99, Mike Phillips <radiolawyer[_at_]hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > A new client asked me a question this morning that has been asked
> > many times, but I've never had to answer it before. (It's an academic
> > question.)
> >
> > When a client pays an attorney to draft a contract, who owns the
> > copyright to the contract?
>
> Did the client draft the contract? I don't think so. So, the
> attorney is the author, and copyright vests initially in the
> author. See 17 U.S.C. sec. 201(a). (I don't think anyone would
> seriously contend that the contract is a work made for hire.)

    The lawyer drafts the contract -- let's say he has an undisputed copyright in the aforementioned document (at that moment in time (even if it is merely a jumble of facts)). His client tenders it to my client. My client and I mark it all up, make revisions, make changes, make substitutions to clauses, etal. It goes back to the orig. client and lawyer drafter. They make their changes and re-type. Many of my revisions are now part and parcel of the final contract draft. Who holds copyright?

   A short time later my client sues for breach. It is widely reported in the news. Because of the publicity, 14 dozen folks descend on the courthouse to get a copy of the case file from the clerk. The file contains the contract (with a claim of copyright by the original lawyer posted in it) can the author (whomever that may turn out to be) sue the clerk of court?

   In my state ANYTHING filed in the public record is not only open to view but can lawfully be copied per the law and state constitution. Let's assume that a recently written and formally registered manuscript was made part of the court record. How does the law reconcile making copies of court files that contains material under copyright protection? And how does it deal with folks republishing all the data found within the file (public record) on Web sites and in other media?

Don Roemer
<droe2[_at_]earthlink.net> Received on Tue Oct 26 1999 - 23:05:18 GMT