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U.S. Supreme Court's Ruling on Copyright Registration

By Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida
April 01, 2019

In March 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 9-0 opinion construing U.S. Copyright Act procedural requirements for commencing infringement actions. Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street.com LLC, 17-571 (March 4, 2019).

The Supreme Court had granted certiorari in Fourth Estate to resolve a split in the federal circuit courts as to whether §411(a) of the Copyright Act could be read to allow commencement of an infringement action once a registration application filed with the Copyright Office is complete (the “application approach”) or, instead, only (subject to limited statutorily specified exceptions) upon issuance by the Copyright Office of the registration (the “registration approach”).

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