Justices Asked to Ponder Circuit Split in Code Copyright Case

A defense contractor asked the US Supreme Court step in to resolve a stark circuit split over whether judges or juries should determine the copyrightability of computer code.

The scope of protection for a source code’s copyright owner depends on the circuit where a complaint is filed, Strategic Technology Institute Inc. said in its petition for a writ of certiorari docketed Jan. 13. In the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, Eighth circuits, the issue is decided by the court, the filing said, but the Fifth, Ninth, and Eleventh treat it “as a question of fact decided by the jury.”

The ...