Case 1:13-cv-01215-TSC Document 239 Filed 03/31/22 Page 17 of 47
copyright. 17 U.S.C. § 410(c); see also MOB Music Publ’g v. Zanzibar on the Waterfront, LLC, 698 F. Supp. 2d 197, 202 (D.D.C. 2010). If the copyright was registered more than five years after the work was published, the “evidentiary weight to be accorded … shall be within the discretion of the court.” 17 U.S.C. § 410(c).
When a party offers as prima facie evidence a registration certificate for a compilation of individual works that it authored rather than the registration for a specific individual work, a court may consider this to be similar prima facie evidence of ownership, creating the same rebuttable presumption. See Xoom, Inc. v. Imageline, Inc., 323 F.3d 279, 283–84 (4th Cir. 2003), abrogated by Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010); Morris v. Business 12 Concepts, Inc., 259 F.3d 65, 68 (2d Cir. 2001), abrogated on other grounds by Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010). Moreover, the registration certificate is sufficient prima facie evidence for the individual works within the compilation, if the compilation is deemed to be a “single work.” Federal regulations provide that “all copyrightable elements that are otherwise recognizable as self-contained works, that are included in the same unit of publication, and in which the copyright claimant is the same” constitute a “single work,” and are validly registered under a single registration certificate. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(4); Kay Berry, Inc. v. Taylor Gifts, Inc., 421 F.3d 199, 205–06 (3d Cir. 2005); Yurman Studio, Inc. v. Castaneda, 591 F. Supp. 2d 471, 483 (S.D.N.Y. 2008).
Plaintiffs produced registration certificates for each of the 217 standards at issue, and each certificate lists Plaintiffs as the authors of the works. See Pls.’ 2d SMF ¶¶ 1–10. Specifically, ASTM has obtained copyright registration certificates that cover 191 of its standards. See ECF No. 198-5, Declaration of Jane W. Wise (“Wise Decl.”) ¶¶ 2, 31–149, Exs. 30–148; ECF No. 118-7, Declaration of Thomas O’Brien (“O’Brien Decl.”) ¶¶ 5–12, Exs. 1–4.
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