For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, May 7, 2018, we will discuss:

Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, (11th Cir.May 18, 2017) (available here). Plaintiff sued defendant for copyright infringement. Plaintiff’s complaint asserted that it had filed an application to register its copyrights, but the Copyright Office had not registered the claims yet. The district court dismissed the action because Plaintiff failed to plead compliance with the registration requirement, 17 U.S.C. § 411(a). The main issue in this case is whether registration of a copyright for § 411(a) occurs when someone submits the registration at the Copyright Office, or when the Copyright Registrar approves of the application. The 5th and 9th Circuits have held 411 is satisfied when you drop an application off, the 10th and 11th have held it is when the Office approves of the application.

We will also read several briefs filed for the Supreme Court

Opposition Brief

Reply Brief

More information can be found on SCOTUSblog

All are invited to join us on Monday May 7, 2018, at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.