27 March 2007 on 12:04 pm by jdrlegal | In copyright |
The US Court of Appeals in the case Brooks-Ngwenya v Thompson and others (7th Cir., 17 October 2006) denied relief to a person who claimed to be the copyright owner of certain material and that another party was using the material without her consent. Her claim was denied on the basis that the person claiming infringement had not registered the copyright in the material with the Library of Congress in the US.
Copyright is protected by federal law in the US, which requires the owner of the copyright to have registered the copyright with the Library of Congress in order to bring a claim for copyright infringement in US federal courts.
The US federal court is the only legal arena in which copyright matters are determined in the US.
Perhaps it’s time for creative talent, entrepreneurs and SMEs trading into the US to get Uncle Sam’s copyright stamp of approval…