Stuart Y. Silverstein v. Penguin Putnam, Inc.

368 F.3d 77, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1773, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9006, 2004 WL 1008314
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 7, 2004
Docket03-7363
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 368 F.3d 77 (Stuart Y. Silverstein v. Penguin Putnam, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stuart Y. Silverstein v. Penguin Putnam, Inc., 368 F.3d 77, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1773, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9006, 2004 WL 1008314 (2d Cir. 2004).

Opinion

JACOBS, Circuit Judge.

In 1996, Stuart Y. Silverstein published a book of Dorothy Parker poems that had not been collected in the three volumes of poetry she published in her lifetime, and that Silverstein had mined chiefly from old magazines and newspapers. Silverstein claims copyright in the selection and arrangement of those poems. (The owner of Mrs. Parker’s copyright is not involved in this litigation.) Penguin Putnam, Inc. (“Penguin”) was offered the opportunity to publish Silverstein’s volume in 1994, but declined. In 1999, Penguin issued Dorothy Parker: Complete Poems (“Complete Poems ”), which is composed of the three volumes published by Mrs. Parker plus all but one of the uncollected poems in Silver-stein’s book, which are chronologically arranged at the back.

Silverstein asserts claims against Penguin for copyright infringement, violation of the Lanham Act, immoral trade practices and unfair competition, and for an injunction. After a hearing, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Keenan, /.) granted summary judgment in favor of Silverstein as to copyright, Lanham Act, and immoral trade practices and unfair competition, and it enjoined Penguin from selling or further distributing Complete Poems. See Silverstein v. Penguin Putnam, Inc., No. 01 Civ. 309, 2003 WL 1797848, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5487 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 4, 2003). On March 9, 2004, we vacated the injunction and announced that an opinion would follow.

We conclude that there are material issues of fact as to whether Penguin has taken any creative input by Silverstein that is more than trivial, and we remand for further proceedings. We hold that, in any event, the right asserted by Silverstein is too slight to support an injunction against publication of the Penguin volume: Silverstein holds no copyright in the poems themselves; Penguin has not used Silver-stein’s arrangement; and the chief principle of Silverstein’s selection — that the poems previously had not been collected— reflects an exercise of judgment by Mrs. Parker, not by Silverstein.

Silverstein undertakes to demonstrate a protectible right in the selection by showing that he excluded from his compilation some of the uncollected poems, either be *79 cause he did not consider them to be “poems” or because he believed they had not been written by Mrs. Parker. There are, however, questions of fact that bear on whether Silverstein is entitled to any protection for his selection of uncollected poems or whether in fact he simply published as many as he could find.

BACKGROUND

Dorothy Parker, a prolific American poet, short-story writer, screenwriter, and critic, published three volumes of poetry in her lifetime: Enough Rope (1926), Sunset Gun (1928), and Death and Taxes (1931). They have been continuously in print since 1944 within The Portable Dorothy Parker. 1

Silverstein undertook to compile the poems that Mrs. Parker had omitted from her collections. After more than a year combing back issues of periodicals, including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Life, Silverstein identified 122 uncollected poems. Most are from magazines, some are from newspapers, and two had never been published. He published them in 1996, in a book entitled Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker (“Not Much Fun ”).

In 1994, prior to the publication of Not Much Fun, Silverstein submitted his manuscript to Penguin for consideration. Each page of the manuscript carried the notation: “Compilation ©1994 Stuart Y. Silverstein. All rights reserved.” Penguin offered Silverstein $2,000 for the right to publish his compilation as part of a larger volume of Mrs. Parker’s work that would include all of her collected and uncollected poems. Silverstein preferred publication in a separate volume.

In 1999, Penguin published Dorothy Parker: Complete Poems. This compilation re-published her three existing collections and added at the end a section called “Poems Uncollected by Parker.” The end section contained 121 of the 122 poems printed in Silverstein’s book, 2 ordered chronologically rather than in Silverstein’s more subjective arrangement. However, Penguin concedes that the editor who prepared that section photocopied Not Much Fun, cut the poems apart with scissors, and pasted them into the Penguin manuscript chronologically. Complete Poems does not reference or acknowledge Silver-stein or Not Much Fun.

Silverstein brought suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2001, alleging that Penguin (i) infringed his copyright under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq(ii) engaged in “reverse passing off’ in violation of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); and (iii) engaged in immoral trade practices and unfair competition in violation of New York law. Judge Keenan granted Silver-stein’s motion for summary judgment and permanently enjoined Penguin from further sales or distribution of Complete Poems. The court found that Not Much Fun was entitled to copyright protection because Silverstein’s selection of the poems evinced the level of creativity needed to render it an original work of authorship. He focused on the subjective judgment used by Silverstein in selecting and characterizing the chosen works as poems, “relying on his own taste, judgment, and informed decision-making.” Silverstein, 2003 WL 1797848, at *4, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5487, at *12. The court found that *80 Penguin infringed Silverstein’s copyright by copying and pasting his protected selection into Complete Poems. Id. at *6-*7, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5487, at *18-*21.

The district court also granted summary judgment for Silverstein on the Lanham Act claim, finding that Penguin’s failure to credit Silverstein in Complete Poems was a willful false designation. Id. at *7-*8, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5487, at *22-*24. Finally, the court found that Silverstein’s state law claims were not preempted by federal copyright law, and it granted summary judgment for him on those claims as well. Id. at *8, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5487, at *25.

The district court denied Penguin’s motion for a stay of the injunction pending appeal, finding insufficient likelihood of success on the merits on appeal and no evidence that Penguin would suffer irreparable injury absent a stay. On June 11, 2003, the district court entered a permanent injunction barring Penguin from publishing or selling Complete Poems, and requiring a full recall of all existing copies.

This Court heard oral argument in the appeal on January 8, 2004.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Serova v. Sony Music Entertainment
California Supreme Court, 2022
TD Bank NA v. Vernon Hill, II
928 F.3d 259 (Third Circuit, 2019)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Book Dog Books, LLC
327 F. Supp. 3d 606 (S.D. Illinois, 2018)
Olivares v. University of Chicago
213 F. Supp. 3d 757 (M.D. North Carolina, 2016)
Keeling v. Hars
809 F.3d 43 (Second Circuit, 2015)
Beastie Boys v. Monster Energy Co.
87 F. Supp. 3d 672 (S.D. New York, 2015)
Effie Film, LLC v. Pomerance
909 F. Supp. 2d 273 (S.D. New York, 2012)
Buttnugget Publishing v. Radio Lake Placid, Inc.
807 F. Supp. 2d 100 (N.D. New York, 2011)
Salinger v. Colting
607 F.3d 68 (Second Circuit, 2010)
Wilson v. Brennan
637 F. Supp. 2d 959 (D. New Mexico, 2009)
IMS Health Inc. v. Sorrell
631 F. Supp. 2d 429 (D. Vermont, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
368 F.3d 77, 70 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1773, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9006, 2004 WL 1008314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stuart-y-silverstein-v-penguin-putnam-inc-ca2-2004.