United Dictionary Co. v. G. & C. Merriam Co.

Background

The case involves a Massachusetts publishing corporation that copyrighted "Webster’s High School Dictionary" in the United States and arranged for an English publisher to produce an edition without the American copyright notice and under a different title. An Illinois publishing company obtained copies of the English edition and prepared to reprint and sell it in the United States. The Massachusetts company sued to stop the reprint, arguing the lack of notice on the English edition destroyed its American copyright. Lower courts disagreed, producing conflicting rulings before the case reached this Court.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether the statutory requirement to insert copyright notice in “the several copies of every edition published” applies to editions published abroad. It concluded that Congress would not reasonably require an author to take personal action outside U.S. jurisdiction or to warn the world about a law that runs only here. The Court noted later legislation and historical practice that confined notice obligations to copies sold or distributed in the United States. It therefore held that omitting American notice from an edition published and sold only abroad did not destroy the U.S. copyright, and affirmed the decree in favor of the American publisher.

Real world impact

The ruling preserves an American author’s U.S. copyright even when a foreign edition lacks U.S. notice, and it limits the reach of the notice requirement to copies sold or distributed in the United States. The opinion leaves open detailed questions about when pirated foreign reprints may lawfully be imported into the country.