![handle is hein.crs/govzhz0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
Congressional ______
a Research Service
When Can Copyright Holders Sue?: Supreme
Court to Resolve Circuit Split on Copyright
Registration
Updated March 7, 2019
UPDATE (March 7, 2019): On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Fourth Estate
Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com. Justice Ginsburg's opinion for a unanimous court held that a
copyright holder must wait for the Copyright Office to either grant or deny an application for registration
before he may sue for copyright infringement-the so-called registration approach. The Court rejected
the application approach, previously followed by some lower courts, which had allowed the copyright
holder to sue immediately after he had submitted an application for registration to the Copyright Office.
The Court primarily relied on other uses of registration in the Copyright Act to conclude that an
application alone was insufficient to ma[ke] a registration within the meaning of] 7 U S.C. § 411 (a).
Nonetheless, the copyright holder may recover damages both before and after the registration, as
consistent with the Copyright Act's three-year statute of limitations.
The original post previewing this case, from October 5, 2018, is reproduced below.
English teachers have long chided students for using the passive voice in their writing. Section 411(a) of
the Copyright Act provides a cautionary example of the ambiguities that passive voice may create. This
statute states that no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be
instituted until . . . registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title. This
language makes clear, as the Supreme Court has held, that copyright registration is required before a
copyright holder can file a lawsuit in federal court. However, the statute's passive voice construction
leaves it less clear who makes the registration that is a prerequisite to a copyright infringement suit: the
copyright holder, or the Copyright Office?
The result of this ambiguity is an entrenched, decades-old disagreement among the federal courts of
appeals over when a registration has been made and thus what copyright holders must do before they
can sue in for copyright infringement. A number of courts follow the application approach, holding that
a copyright holder can sue once she submits the required application, deposit, and fee to the Copyright
Office. Other courts follow the registration approach and hold that registration is not made until the
Copyright Office acts on the application by either granting or refusing registration. Because copyright
claims are subject to a three-year statute of limitations, and the registration process can take many
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10202
CRS Legal Sidebar
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govzhz0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most