Page:Roger Miller Music v. Sony-ATV Publishing (2012).djvu/2

No.&#160;10-5363  _________________

OPINION _________________

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Defendant-Appellant Sony/ATV Publishing, LLC (“Sony”) appeals the district court's judgment in favor of Plaintiffs-Appellees Mary Miller and Roger Miller Music, Inc. (collectively, “RMMI”) on their copyright infringement claim and the award of $903,349.17 in damages. Because the Copyright Act makes clear that the renewal copyright vested with Roger Miller, and thus with Sony as his assignee, we REVERSE the district court's judgment and REMAND with instructions to enter judgment in favor of Sony.

I. BACKGROUND

Famed singer and songwriter Roger Miller, best known for the hit song “King of the Road,” assigned the original and renewal copyrights to his songs to Tree Publishing Co. (Sony's predecessor-in-interest) in a series of contracts in the 1960s. In exchange for this assignment, Miller was entitled to receive royalty payments from the use of his songs. Relevant to this litigation are the songs originally copyrighted in 1964, for which the renewal copyright term began January 1, 1993.

Sony filed applications to register the renewal copyrights for the 1964 songs with the United States Copyright Office in January and April 1992 and subsequently registered these copyrights. Miller died on October 25, 1992. In his will, he granted all interests in his intellectual property to his wife, Mary; Mary Miller assigned these interests to Roger Miller Music, Inc. Over the next twelve years, Sony continued to exploit the 1964 songs and pay royalties to RMMI.