Copyright Registration Didn’t Start Clock for Ownership Claim

The clock to claim ownership in a copyright didn’t start running with the registration of a competing claim, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Nov. 14.

Noting a circuit split on the issue, the opinion by Judge Pierre N. Leval said a contrary interpretation of the law would impose an “intolerable and unrealistic burden” on authors.

The Copyright Act says registering a copyright “gives all persons constructive notice” of the facts in the registration.

The defendants argued the plaintiff’s ownership claims were therefore untimely because they accrued when the copyrights were registered, and the applicable three-year ...