Energy Intelligence Grp., Inc. v. CHS McPherson Refinery, Inc.

304 F. Supp. 3d 1051
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJanuary 17, 2018
DocketCase No. 16–01015–EFM–GLR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 304 F. Supp. 3d 1051 (Energy Intelligence Grp., Inc. v. CHS McPherson Refinery, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Energy Intelligence Grp., Inc. v. CHS McPherson Refinery, Inc., 304 F. Supp. 3d 1051 (D. Kan. 2018).

Opinion

ERIC F. MELGREN, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

*1054Plaintiffs Energy Intelligence Group, Inc., and Energy Intelligence Group (UK) Limited (together, Plaintiffs or "EIG") have sued Defendant CHS McPherson Refinery, Inc. (the "Refinery") for copyright infringement. This matter comes before the Court on the Refinery's Motion for Referral to the Register of Copyrights Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 411(b) and a Concurrent Stay (Doc. 98). For the reasons stated below, the Court denies the Refinery's motion.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

EIG has been publishing newsletters and other publications for the global energy industry for over sixty years. It sells subscriptions to a number of publications, two of which include Oil Daily and Petroleum Intelligence Weekly. From June 2004 to about 2016, EIG sought to register Oil Daily with the United States Copyright Office using Form G/DN. This form allows an applicant to register multiple newspapers and newsletters in a single application. From 2004 to 2016, EIG sought to register Petroleum Intelligence Weekly with the Copyright Office using Form SE. This form allows an applicant to register an individual issue of a serial, e.g. , a newsletter, periodical, magazine, annual, or journal.

The Refinery maintained a single subscription to Oil Daily from 1992 through May 15, 2015, and a single subscription to Petroleum Intelligence Weekly from 1982 through June 13, 2016. Originally, the Refinery received the publications in print and would route each printed publication through its office for several executives to read. In the late 1990s, EIG began distributing the publications electronically. EIG alleges that the Refinery continued to distribute Oil Daily and Petroleum Intelligence Weekly to its employees by making a copy of the publication and distributing the copy in .pdf attachments via email. According to EIG, the Refinery's actions of copying and distributing the publications violate the subscription agreements.

EIG commenced this action on January 18, 2016, and filed an Amended Complaint on August 16, 2016, alleging that the Refinery willfully infringed the copyrights of its Oil Daily and Petroleum Intelligence Weekly publications. The Refinery denies the infringement and the validity of EIG's copyright registrations. The parties have filed cross motions for summary judgment, which are currently pending before the Court. In addition, the Refinery has filed the current motion, which relates to the validity of EIG's copyright registrations. The Refinery contends that EIG made knowing misrepresentations when preparing Form G/DN for the Oil Daily publications and asks the Court to refer this matter to the Register of Copyrights to determine whether it would have refused registration if it had known of these misrepresentations.1 In addition, the Refinery *1055asks for a concurrent stay of the proceedings.

II. Legal Standard

Section 411(b)(1) of the Copyright Act states:

A certificate of registration satisfies the requirements of this section and section 412, regardless of whether the certificate contains any inaccurate information, unless-
(A) the inaccurate information was included on the application for copyright registration with knowledge that it was inaccurate; and
(B) the inaccuracy of the information, if known, would have caused the Register of Copyrights to refuse registration.2

Section 411(b)(2) requires that "[i]n any case in which inaccurate information described under paragraph (1) is alleged, the court shall request the Register of Copyrights to advise the court whether the inaccurate information, if known, would have caused the Register of Copyrights to refuse registration."3

The Refinery brings this motion under § 411(b)(2) -a procedural mechanism that has rarely been invoked in the federal courts and never reviewed or interpreted by the Tenth Circuit.4 Those courts that have interpreted § 411(b)(2) have determined that the provision is mandatory, meaning that it requires district courts to solicit the advice of the Register of Copyrights if the statutory conditions set forth in § 411(b)(1)(A) are satisfied.5 For example, in DeliverMed , the Seventh Circuit held that the district court committed reversible error when it invalidated a copyright registration without first consulting the Register of Copyrights as required by § 411(b)(2) even though the parties had not requested the court to do so.6

The language of § 411(b)(2) requires the court to consult the Copyright Office when a party simply alleges the inclusion of knowingly inaccurate information in the copyright application.7 But, federal courts have recognized that this procedure creates a serious potential for abuse because it allows infringers to delay proceedings by simply alleging technical violations of the underlying copyright registrations.8 Thus, the courts have concluded that before seeking the Register's advice on materiality, the party seeking invalidation of the copyright must first establish the preconditions to invalidity-(1) that the application contained a misstatement *1056of fact and (2) that the misrepresentation was knowingly included on the application.9 This method "appropriately balances the Copyright Office's statutory right to weigh in on the materiality of a knowing misrepresentation ... against the district court's 'inherent power to control its own docket and to prevent abuse in its proceedings.' "10 Therefore, before this Court refers the matter to the Register of Copyrights, the Refinery must demonstrate (1) that EIG's Oil Daily registration applications included inaccurate information and (2) that EIG knowingly included this inaccurate information in the applications.

III. Analysis

The Refinery argues that EIG knowingly included inaccurate information when seeking to register Oil Daily using Form G/DN with the Copyright Office. Form G/DN may be used for group registration of daily newspapers and newsletters, provided that the applicant meets the following requirements:

(1) [The daily newsletter is published] at least two days each week and the newsletter must contain news or information of interest chiefly to a special group ...;
(2) The works must be essentially all new collective works or all new issues that have not been published before;
(3) Each issue must be a work made for hire;
(4) The author(s) and claimant(s) must be the same person(s) or organization(s) for all the issues;

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Bluebook (online)
304 F. Supp. 3d 1051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/energy-intelligence-grp-inc-v-chs-mcpherson-refinery-inc-ksd-2018.