Federal Court Digests: June 4, 2007

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 4, 2007

COUNSEL: Anthony J. Biller, Coats & Bennett, P.L.L.C., Cary, N.C., for Appellant. John J. Fargo, Director, Intellectual Property Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, for Appellee.

FACTS: William Darden filed this action under the Administrative Procedure Act against Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, seeking to set aside a decision of the United States Copyright Office denying Darden's applications for copyright registration. See 5 U.S.C. Section 706(2)(A); 17 U.S.C. Section 701(e).

In May 2002, Darden filed an application with the Copyright Office seeking to register his website, which he titled "APPRAISERS dotCOM" for purposes of the application, as a technical drawing. Darden described APPRAISERSdotCOM as a derivative work based on "US Census black and white outline maps" and "clip art." Darden's application identified "graphics, text, colors, and arrangement" as the material that he added to the preexisting work and in which he claimed copyright protection. Additionally, Darden filed a separate application for registration of the work "Maps for APPRAISERSdotCOM." Darden described his "Maps" work as a derivative work that, similar to the "APPRAISERSdot COM" work, was based on preexisting "US Census black and white outline maps."

The Examining Division of the Copyright Office rejected both applications. With respect to Darden's claim in the Maps themselves, the examiner concluded that the work "lack[ed] the authorship necessary to support a copyright claim." As for Darden's application to register his APPRAISERSdotCOM web pages as a technical drawing, the examiner noted that the work "does not appear to contain any technical drawing."

Darden sought reconsideration by the Examining Division of the Copyright Office. The Examining Division denied Darden's request for reconsideration and registration of his copyright claims. Darden then sought review of the denial of his applications by the Copyright Office Board of Appeals. The Board of Appeals again affirmed the denial of registration for both the Maps and the APPRAISERSdotCOM works.

The district court concluded that the Copyright Office did not abuse its discretion in refusing registration, See 5 U.S.C. Section 706(2)(A), and granted the Register's motion for summary judgment. The 4th Circuit affirmed.

LAW: The Copyright Act provides that "all actions taken by the Register of Copyrights under this title are subject to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act." 17 U.S.C. Section 701(e). One routine function of the Register is to examine applications for registration to determine if "the material deposited constitutes copyrightable subject matter and ... the other legal and formal requirements of [the Copyright Act] have been met." 17 U.S.C. Section 410(a).

If so, then the Register must issue a certificate of registration to the applicant, see 17 U.S.C. Section 410(a); if, however, the Register determines that "the material deposited does not constitute copyrightable subject matter or that the claim is invalid for any other reason," then the Register must refuse registration and notify the applicant of the reasons for refusal, 17 U.S.C. Section 410(b).