Gaye v. Gillis, Civ. A. No. 57-139.

• Citation: 167 F. Supp. 416
• Decision Date: 21 October 1958
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 57-139.
• Parties: Matthew GAYE, formerly known as Matt Goldberg v. John J. GILLIS d/b/a Allied Investigators, Successors to Federal Investigators.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

167 F. Supp. 416

Matthew GAYE, formerly known as Matt Goldberg v. John J. GILLIS d/b/a Allied Investigators, Successors to Federal Investigators.

Civ. A. No. 57-139.

United States District Court D. Massachusetts.

October 21, 1958.

Ben G. Gilbert, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.

John H. McKenna, Herbert P. Kenway, Boston, Mass., for defendant.

FRANCIS J. W. FORD, District Judge.

This is an action for copyright infringement and unfair competition to which a count for breach of contract was later added by amendment.

Plaintiff since before February 18, 1947, has been engaged in the business of conducting a commercial dunning service in Boston and other cities under the name of "Commercial Investigators." Plaintiff would sell to business men books of coupons, each coupon entitling the purchaser to plaintiff's service on a delinquent account. When the purchaser desired to utilize the service, he filled in one of the coupons with the name of the debtor and other pertinent information and sent it to plaintiff. Plaintiff thereupon mailed to the debtor a series of letters at regular intervals for the purpose of inducing the debtor to make payment. Any payments were made directly to the creditor and not to the plaintiff, whose services did not include any actual collection of money.

On February 18, 1947, defendant applied to plaintiff for employment as salesman and after an interview with plaintiff was hired, and they both signed an employment contract in duplicate. After working for plaintiff for some time, defendant decided to set up his own business operating along similar lines. On September 23, 1949, he formally terminated his employment with plaintiff by letter. Previous to this time on September 16, 1949, he had filed with the city clerk of Boston a certificate of the name, Federal Investigators (later changed to Allied Investigators), under which he was to do business. He had his own coupon books and other forms printed and has since September 1949 been engaged in business in and around Boston.

Plaintiff's first claim is that defendant's coupon book infringes the copyright on plaintiff's coupon book. Both books do have a general similarity. There are, however, numerous differences. The covers are different in design. Plaintiff's cover contains the phrases, "Low Cost," "Prompt Results," "No Collection Fees," "Assets Located," "Preserves Good Will," "Debtors Pay You Direct" and "Comprehensive —No Details," which are not found on defendant's cover. Defendant's cover refers to "Complete and confidential service for lawyers, merchants, banks, insurance companies, department and retail stores" and to "tracing and investigation." This does not appear on plaintiff's cover. In defendant's book each coupon has a stub which remains after the coupon is torn out and on which information as to the debt can be recorded. In plaintiff's book there is no such stub, but separate pages are provided on which to keep a record of accounts on which service is requested. Plaintiff's book has instructions for use of the coupons on the inside of the front cover and at the bottom of each coupon. Defendant's book has all its instructions on the inside of the front cover. The instructions in both cases are substantially similar, but, as was the case with the covers, there are numerous differences in the language, each set of instructions containing items not found in the other.

A copyright does not cover an idea or a system of doing business but only the particular mode of expression of the idea embodied in the copyrighted material. The public is free to use the idea or method of doing business and hence, while the copyrighted description of the idea may not be slavishly copied, the copyright is not infringed by an expression of the idea which is substantially similar where such similarity is necessary because the idea or system being described is the same. Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 25 L.Ed. 841; Crume v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., 7 Cir., 140 F.2d 182; Dorsey v. Old Surety Life Insurance Co., 10 Cir., 98 F.2d 872, 119 A.L.R. 1250; Continental Casualty Co. v. Beardsley, D.C., 151 F.Supp. 28. Here there was no slavish copying of plaintiff's coupon book. Defendant was free to adopt the same method of doing business that plaintiff was using. The use of a coupon book was an integral part of this method of business. The similarity which defendant's book bears to plaintiff's is only such as would necessarily be found in any coupon book used in such a method of business. The coupons demand the same information because it is the basic information about the account to be serviced which anyone in the business...