Bit Parts

In a case of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed the question: “May a contributor to a creative work whose contributions are inseparable from, and integrated into, the work maintain a copyright interest in his or her contributions alone?” The appeals court answered no under the fact pattern presented in a film production company's declaratory suit against film director Alex Merkin over the movie Heads Up. Casa Duse LLC v. Merkin, 13-3865. Merkin, who claimed sole (rather than joint) authorship, hadn't signed a work-for-hire agreement. But the appeals court decided that “a director's contribution to an integrated 'work of authorship' such as a film is not itself a 'work of authorship' subject to its own copyright protection.” The appeals court added: “A conclusion other than the one we adopt would grant contributors like Merkin greater rights than joint authors, who, as we have noted, have no right to interfere with a co-author's use of the copyrighted work.” As to the Heads Up raw footage, the Second Circuit found: “The record does not reflect any developments that occurred between the creation of the raw film footage and Casa Duse's attempts to create a finished product that would alter [our] analysis as to the raw footage. We thus conclude that Casa Duse, not Merkin, owns the copyright in the finished film and its prior versions, including the disputed 'raw film footage.'”

'Grupo Miramar' Trademark Infringement Claim Prevails, But Not Claims for Counterfeiting or Intentional Interference