Term: 2018
Docket: 17-571
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-street.com
- Pro
17-571 FOURTH ESTATE PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION V. WALL-STREET.COM DECISION BELOW: 856 F3d 1338 CERT. GRANTED 6/28/2018 QUESTION PRESENTED: Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act provides (with qualifications) that "no civil action for infringement of [a] copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title." 17 U.S.C. § 4ll(a). The question presented is: Whether "registration of [a] copyright claim has been made" within the meaning of§ 411 (a) when the copyright holder delivers the required application, deposit, and fee to the Copyright Office, as the Fifth and Ninth Circuits have held, or only once the Copyright Office acts on that application, as the Tenth Circuit and, in the decision below, the Eleventh Circuit have held. LOWER COURT CASE NUMBER: 16-13726
In the case of Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that copyright owners must wait for their copyright registration to be processed by the Copyright Office before they can file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. The dispute arose when Fourth Estate, a news organization, sued Wall-Street.com after it continued to display Fourth Estate's articles following cancellation of their licensing agreement without permission or payment. However, at the time of filing suit, Fourth Estate had only applied for but not yet received registration from the Copyright Office. The court held in favor of Wall-Street.com stating that under Section 411(a) of Title 17 in U.S Code which governs copyrights law; "registration...has been made" means that an application has been both submitted and granted.
In the dissenting opinion for Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, Justice Ginsburg argued that the majority's interpretation of Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act was overly rigid and inconsistent with Congress' intent to provide broad protection for copyright owners. She contended that a "registration" should be considered made when an application is filed, not when it is granted by the Copyright Office as this could take several months or even years, during which time infringement may continue unabated without any legal recourse available to copyright holders. This delay would undermine their ability to promptly enforce their rights against infringers and potentially cause irreparable harm in terms of lost sales or damage to reputation. Furthermore, she pointed out that under international treaties like Berne Convention, no formalities are required for obtaining copyright protection so U.S law should not impose such burdensome procedural requirements on domestic authors.
