Page 21 - Intellectual Property Disputes

requisite degree of creativity required for originality and was not copyrightable. The court held that (a)
the names, towns, and telephone numbers of the utility’s subscribers were not copyrightable facts, and
(b) these bits of information had not been selected, coordinated, or arranged in an original way sufficient
to meet the constitutional or statutory requirements for copyright protection. fn 31

Assuming all registration requirements have been met, the U.S. Copyright Office will ordinarily issue a
formal certificate of copyright registration. The certificate is effective as of the date that the U.S.
Copyright Office received all items required for registration. The certificate of registration, if issued
within five years of the first publication of the work, constitutes prima facie evidence of the copyright’s
validity and the facts stated in the certificate. fn 32 In the event that the U.S. Copyright Office denies an
application for registration, it affords the applicant an opportunity to respond.

Nature of Copyright Rights

Subject to certain limitations, Section 106 of the Copyright Act enumerates the following six categories
of exclusive rights conferred upon copyright owners:

1. To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or photo records.

2. To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work.

3. To distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other
transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.

4. In the case of literary, musical, and dramatic works, and choreography; pantomimes; and motion
pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly.

5. In the case of literary, musical, and dramatic works, and choreography; pantomimes; and
pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or
other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly.

6. In the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital
audio transmission.

The rights granted a copyright owner do not include the right to exclude any and all kinds of copying.
For instance, copying is legally permissible to the extent that the subject matter copied is not "fixed in a
tangible medium of expression" or if the portion copied does not satisfy the originality requirement. fn 33
In addition, the Copyright Act does not protect "any idea, procedure, process, and system, method of
operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained,
illustrated, or embodied in such work." fn 34

fn 31 Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc., 499 U.S. 340 (1991).

fn 32 See www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html.

fn 33 Copyrights, USC 17, Section 102.

fn 34 Id.

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