Champion Map Corporation v. Twin Printing Co.

Decision Date15 October 1971
Docket NumberCiv. No. 890.
Citation350 F. Supp. 1332
PartiesCHAMPION MAP CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. TWIN PRINTING COMPANY et al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina

Channing L. Richards, Francis M. Pinckney, Richards & Shefte, Charlotte, N. C., for plaintiff.

Clifton T. Hunt, Jr., John G. Mills, III, Hunt, Rhodes & Mills, Raleigh, N. C., J. William Anderson, Fayetteville, N. C., for defendants Ken Tart and Spring Lake Realty Co.

OPINION AND ORDER

DUPREE, District Judge.

This action is brought pursuant to Section 1 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, seeking an injunction restraining defendants from infringing certain copyrights and from distributing, selling, offering for sale, or otherwise disposing of copies of the infringing articles, payment of damages, and costs of the action with reasonable attorney's fees. The case is before the court on defendants Tart and Spring Lake Realty Company's motion to amend their answer and for judgment on the pleadings, and on plaintiff's motion for summary judgment.

In its complaint, filed September 15, 1969, plaintiff alleged that defendants infringed its copyrights by having printed and distributed to the public a map entitled "Fayetteville, Spring Lake and Cumberland County, North Carolina". In support of its motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff relies on the complaint and attached documentary exhibits 1 and 2, the answer, answers to interrogatories, and the affidavit of H. Cecil Porter with attached documentary exhibits 3 through 9. This material establishes the facts to be as follows:

On December 31, 1962, plaintiff obtained Copyright Registration No. F 33584 (Exhibit 4 attached to Porter affidavit) for a wall map entitled "Cumberland County, North Carolina", which included maps of Cumberland County, the City of Fayetteville, and the Spring Lake and Fort Bragg areas.

On November 12, 1964, plaintiff obtained Copyright Registration No. F 38063 (Exhibit 6 attached to Porter affidavit) for a wall map entitled "Cumberland County, North Carolina, including Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Fort Bragg and Hope Mills", which was a revised and updated version of the aforementioned 1962 copyrighted map, including additional original cartographic material.

On October 28, 1966, plaintiff obtained Copyright Registration No. F 42494 (Exhibit 8 attached to Porter affidavit) for a wall map entitled "Champion Map of Fayetteville and Cumberland County, N. C., including Hope Mills, Ft. Bragg and Spring Lake" (Exhibit 7 attached to Porter affidavit), which was a revised and updated version of the aforementioned 1964 copyrighted map, including additional original cartographic material.

In early 1967 the 1966 copyrighted wall map, Exhibit 7, was embodied in the form of a folding map that was almost identical to the Exhibit 7 wall map on a reduced scale and contained everything shown on the Exhibit 7 map with the exception of a few minor deletions. This Exhibit 9 folding map bears plaintiff's copyright notice and approximately 9,000 copies of this map were sold by the plaintiff.

In early 1968 defendant Tart, who is president of defendant Spring Lake Realty Company, took a map of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County area to defendant Twin Printing Company, Inc., and, upon instructions of defendant Tart, defendant Twin Printing Company, Inc., printed approximately 5,000 maps entitled "Fayetteville, Spring Lake and Cumberland County, North Carolina, Compliments of Spring Lake Realty Company", a copy of which is attached to the complaint as Exhibit 2. All 5,000 copies of these Exhibit 2 maps were distributed by defendants Tart and Spring Lake Realty Company from early 1968 to approximately March, 1969.

Defendants Tart and Spring Lake Realty Company have opposed the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment by pointing out specific facts which they believe render summary judgment inappropriate. In briefs filed in opposition to the motion, the defendants have sought to establish that there are genuine issues of material facts disclosed by the record in that:

1. Plaintiff had deposited only wall maps with the copyright office and, therefore, the folding map, which is alleged to be copyrighted, is not in fact subject to plaintiff's copyrights;

2. There "has never been any allegation, suggestion or offer of proof by plaintiff that defendants had access to or copied any of the copyrighted wall maps";

3. Matters outside the pleadings did not establish that plantiff's maps were original; and

4. Defendants failed to indicate on the application for registration of the 1964 map that the map contained "new matter", and, thus, the copyrighted 1964 map is invalid.

The defendants Tart and Spring Lake Realty Company have also filed a motion to amend their answer and for judgment on the pleadings. In paragraph 12 of defendants' answer, the defendants had admitted that Exhibit 1 (the allegedly infringed map) was a representative edition of plaintiff's copyrighted maps. As the Porter affidavit, filed by the plaintiff, reveals that all maps filed in behalf of the plaintiff with the copyright office have been "wall" maps, defendants now seek to deny that Exhibit 1, a folding map, is a representative edition of plaintiff's copyrighted maps. For purposes of this decision, defendants' answer stands thus amended.

The defendants have presented no "evidence" to controvert the record as established by the plaintiff and, since a prima facie case is not overcome by a mere denial, Miller Studio, Inc. v. Pacific Import Company, Inc., 39 F.R.D. 62 (S. D.N.Y.1965), a resolution of this controversy must turn on the question of whether plaintiff has established a prima facie case of infringement. In the context of this factual situation, the record must establish prima facie the validity of plaintiff's copyrights culminating with the 1966 registration for a wall map, that the folding map (Exhibit 9) is protected by the 1966 copyright registration, and that defendants infringed this copyright.

Section 209 of Title 17, U.S.C., provides that a certificate of copyright registration "shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein". It has been held that the facts of which the certificate is prima facie evidence include the validity of the copyright, ownership by the registrant, and initial publication with notice. See Tennessee Fabricating Company v. Moultrie Manufacturing Company, 421 F.2d 279 (5th Cir. 1970); Blumcraft of Pittsburgh v. Newman Brothers, Inc., 373 F.2d 905 (6th Cir. 1967); and Miller Studio, Inc. v. Pacific Import Company, Inc., supra. It is also prima facie evidence of originality. Drop Dead Company v. S. E. Johnson & Son, Inc., 326 F.2d 87 (9th Cir. 1963), cert. den. 377 U.S. 907, 84 S.Ct. 1167, 12 L.Ed.2d 177. Plaintiff has presented as evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment its three certificates of copyright registration and, therefore, defendants' contention that plaintiff has not affirmatively shown that its copyrighted maps were the result of original work is without merit.

In a supplemental brief filed with this court, the defendants raise for the first time the issue of whether the copyright covering plaintiff's 1964 map (Exhibit 5) should be held invalid because plaintiff failed to indicate on the application for registration of copyright that the 1964 map contained "new matter". However, it appears to be the majority rule that mere technicalities are not to be allowed to cut down the benefits conferred by the certificate of registration. In a case involving original and revised map editions, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York stated:

"It will not do to be overstrict as to the technicalities of the Copyright Act. . . If the statute is substantially and in good faith complied with by a person seeking copyright protection and if others have not been misled into thinking that the work is not copyrighted, it is enough." Freedman v. Milnag Leasing Comporation, 20 F.Supp. 802, 804 (S.D.N.Y.1937).

There can be no justified inference that plaintiff has not "substantially and in good faith" complied with the copyright laws or that the defendants had been "misled into thinking that the work is not copyrighted". See also Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. v. Serbin, Inc., 269 F.Supp. 605 (D.C.Fla.1965), affirmed, 381 F.2d 735 (5th Cir. 1967); ...

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  • Russ Berrie & Co., Inc. v. Jerry Elsner Co., Inc.
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    ...not invalidate the copyright, nor is it thereby rendered incapable of supporting an infringement action"); Champion Map Corp. v. Twin Printing Co., 350 F.Supp. 1332 (E.D.N.C.1971) (merely technical omissions insufficient to deny enforcement); Freedman v. Milnag Leasing Corp., 20 F.Supp. 802......
  • Andre Matenciot, Inc. v. David & Dash, Inc.
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    ...has made no such finding, and is not prepared to do so without a full hearing on the merits. Moreover, in Champion Map Corp. v. Twin Printing Co., 350 F.Supp. 1332 (E.D.N. C.1971), summary judgment was granted because defendant failed to offer any evidence in rebuttal to plaintiff's prima f......
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    ...v. Newman Brothers, Inc., 373 F.2d 905 (6th Cir.). It is not overcome by mere denial of infringement. Champion Map Corporation v. Twin Printing Company, D.C., 350 F.Supp. 1332. (2) Maps may be copyrighted. 17 U.S.C. § 5(f). It has been said, however, that they are entitled to limited protec......
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