Page:Thaler v. Perlmutter, Initial Refusal Letter.pdf/1

 August 12, 2019

Ryan Abbott Frank Whittle Building 02 AB 05 Guildford, GU27XH United Kingdom

Correspondence ID: 1-3NPRZ2Y

RE:&emsp;A Recent Entrance to Paradise

Dear Ryan Abbott:

We cannot register this work because it lacks the human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim. According to your application this work was “created autonomously by machine.”

Copyright protects original works of human authorship that are fixed in some physical form. See 17 U.S.C. 102(a). As used in the copyright context, the term “original” means that the work was independently created by the author (as opposed to copied from other works), and that it possesses at least a minimal degree of creativity. See Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991).

The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being. The copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.” Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 94 (1879). Because copyright law is limited to “original intellectual conceptions of the author,” the Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53, 58 (1884).

Neither the aesthetic appeal or commercial value of a work, nor the amount of time and effort expended to create a work are factors that are considered under the copyright law. See Bleistein v. Donaldson, 188 U.S. 239 (1903); Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). The question is whether there is sufficient creative authorship within the meaning of the copyright statute and settled case law.

After careful consideration, we have determined that this particular work will not support a claim to copyright under the standards described above. Therefore we cannot issue the registration which you requested. The copyright law requires that we retain the deposit of this work. See 17 U.S.C. 704(a). The nonrefundable filing fee has been applied to administrative costs.