Action Tapes, Inc., a Texas corporation, doing business as Great Notions, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross Appellee, v. Kelly Mattson, doing business as Kelly J's New Home Sewing Center, Defendant-Appellee/Cross Appellant., 462 F.3d 1010

Summary

The reviewing court did not reach the issue decided by the district court and instead found that plaintiff failed to prove it applied for registration of the computer program copyrights before commencing suit. Plaintiff identified six "visual arts" copyright registrations for the copyrights allegedly infringed but submitted no evidence that it complied with U.S. Copyright Office Circular 61 in applying for them, and no evidence that it deposited the source codes in a form visually perceptible without the aid of a machine or device. The six copyrights were not, as a matter of law, copyrights "in a computer program" within the meaning of the Act. The visual arts registrations did not satisfy the 17 U.S.C.S. § 411(a) requirement that a copyright be registered before an infringement suit was commenced. As plaintiff failed to properly apply for computer program copyrights and deposit the required source codes, there was no reliable basis for resolving the dispute. Thus, § 411(a) barred its ...