The Question When Filing a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Is Where To File It?

With copyright infringement lawsuits being filed more often, federal courts are divided in their belief of whether a copyright infringement claim is valid and a lawsuit warranted based on if the claimant’s copyright registration is completed or still in preregistration.

Federal courts, like the Ninth and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, uphold that just the mere filing of the copyright application is sufficient to sustain the copyright infringement claim being made.  However, other federal courts, like Third and Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeals, maintain that the claimant must have a completed copyright registration in order to sue for copyright infringement.

Until the Supreme Court hands down a decision on whether just a preregistration of a copyright application is sufficient to claim copyright infringement, or whether a completed application is required, it is critically important to correctly decide which federal court is the best to file a lawsuit in based on the stage a copyright registration application is in, and providing that such court has jurisdiction over that case.  The experienced attorneys at Traverse Legal can properly decide which court will be the proper place to file based on case information, facts and jurisdiction for this type of matter.