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

The Supreme Court had granted cert in <i>Fourth Estate</i> 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”).

8 minute read April 01, 2019 at 12:11 AM
By
Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida
U.S. Supreme Court's Ruling on Copyright Registration

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).

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The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which works under the umbrella of the Librarian of Congress, sets statutory-license royalty terms and rates. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently issued two notable decisions about the CRB.

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