You've surely heard of the Great Vegetable War between Jessica Seinfeld and The Sneaky Chef. Jerry Seinfeld went on David Letterman and scoffed at "vegetable plagiarism" which we all thought was hilarious of course.
Well, the Sneaky Chef didn't think it was so funny and filed a lawsuit.
The Seinfeld's filed their response today.
If you check it out, look at paragraph 77.
No damages allowed because even if it was all true, the Sneaky Chef hadn't registered her copyright in time.
Oops.
One of those little things you never think about till it's too late.
Maybe more spinach..I hear it's brain food.
10 comments:
So whose responsibility is filing the copyright? The author or the publisher?
generally the publisher, but it's a matter for the contract.
Thing is, no one double checks usually that it's been done.
Hi.
I've read that the copyright is inherent to the author. For instance, the Evil Editor responded to a question about the copyright on a query letter (clearly not the same issue, but his response creates confusion).
"The words of your query are protected, as is anything you write, but no one's going to steal your query, as it applies only to your book, and would have little bearing on the thief's book. I mean, if Stephen King somehow got hold of Nora Roberts's query for Blue Dahlia, and decided it was better-written than his query for The Shining, it would do him no good to steal it and submit it to a publisher."
http://evileditor.blogspot.com/2008/02/q-131-are-agents-out-to-get-me.html
So what gives? Or is that the reason why we hire lawyers to handle contracts.
Thanks for your insight. I've long appreciated the information you post here.
Pete
Copyright is the property of the author. The question was not who owns it, the question was who is responsible for registering it.
Contract language generally says "publisher will register copyright in author's name within x days of publishing"
That doesn't mean the publisher owns the copyright, only that they are responsible for registering it.
That Janet, it is rare that people have both the humor to appreachiate the legal situaion AND give access to the full information.
If I read the case correctly (and that may be stupid) she isn't really interested as much in damages as in getting affirmed that there was an infringement. (a surprising amount of clients actually care much more about being right than getting some money for their efforts) Clause 77 is located in the section : if the court rules in the affirmative, meaning not that the court would be barred from deciding about the occurance of an infringement but in case they do find there was an infringement there would be no damages collectible under the claim of infringement. There remains however, the public acknowledgement of the inringement AND the devamation part.
And if the author had a contract like the one you describes, placing the obligation to register with the publisher, I can sniff a lawsuit coming up from this side of the atlantic ;)
As always thanx for teh inspiration. I sometimes wish I' d be writing in the genres you handle
Brooke
Imagine wading through 76 paragraphs to learn your case is bupkes.
...
It's not as bad as it seems from the text of the answer. If you register yoru copyright within 3 months after publication OR prior to an infringement of the work, you can get "statutory damages," of between $750 and $30,000 even if you can't prove actual damages or lost profits, and you can get your attorney's fees paid for by the defendant. If you don't register, you can only win actual damages and lost profits. The reason this is buried in paragraph 77 is presumably the amount the plaintiff could get for statutory damages and attorney's fees is dwarfed by the claim of actual damages and lost profits. Still, money is money so they had to put in the defense.
And, by the way, just because they said the registration was not timely doesn't mean that's true. My guess is that's an automatic defense that intellectual property lawyers always assert, just in case it's true.
Hi Janet,
Thanks for your reply. I'd never considered the difference between owning a copyright and registering it; like putting license plates on your car.
It's stories like this that are the reason I copyright everything, including my orders at restaurants.
"I'll have the Sweet and Sour chicken, and an egg roll." (c) Sean Ferrell 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, etc. etc. etc.
I copyright all my rejection letters. No one else is allowed to use "not quite right for me" unless they pay me.
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