Here's a summary of interesting developments in intellectual property, technology, social media, and Internet law for the week ending January 18, 2019.

Supreme Court to Decide: Copyright Litigation Registration Requirement

Later this month, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments regarding whether or not copyright owners must complete the registration process for their copyrights before filing a copyright infringement suit.

In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v. Wall-Street.com, the Supreme Court will decide whether an official copyright registration must be in place before a plaintiff can proceed with filing any type of copyright infringement litigation. Currently, under Section 411(a) of the U.S. Copyright Act, civil actions cannot be filed until “preregistration” or “registration” of the copyright has been properly recorded.

Now, in the case at hand, the Supreme Court must decipher whether the Copyright Act should read the language to mean that “registration” has been met when an application is submitted, also known as the “application approach,” or only once the Copyright Office has actually initiated proceedings on the application, which is referred to as the “registration approach.”

Read the full article here.

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Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and business law firm located in Dallas, Texas. He also co-founded Project K, a charitable movement devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time, and publishes Thriving Attorney, a blog dedicated to exploring the business of the practice of law, productivity and performance for attorneys, and other topics such as law firm leadership and management, law firm culture, and business development for attorneys.

Click to learn more about Darin M. Klemchuk's law practice as an intellectual property lawyer.