Page:Urantia Foundation v. Maaherra.pdf/9

 All of this strongly suggests that even if the Foundation can no longer correct the “work made for hire” description of its proprietorship claim on the renewal form, the Foundation’s renewal copyright is not invalid. There is, however, even more compelling authority for this result.

The case law is overwhelming that inadvertent mistakes on registration certificates do not invalidate a copyright and thus do not bar infringement actions, unless the alleged infringer has relied to its detriment on the mistake, or the claimant intended to defraud the Copyright Office by making the misstatement. See, e.g., Nimmer, § 7.20 at 7-201 and n. 6 (“[A] misstatement or clerical error in the registration application if unaccompanied by fraud will not invalidate the copyright or render the registration certificate incapable of supporting an infringement action.”),; [sic] S.O.S, Inc. v. Payday, 886 F.2d 1081 (9th Cir.1989); Harris v. Emus Records, 734 F.2d 1329 (9th Cir.1984) (citing to Burton, supra, and Urantia Foundation v. King, 194 U.S.P.Q. 171, 174–175 (C.D.Cal.1977)); Datastorm Technologies, Inc. v. Excalibur Communications, Inc., 888 F.Supp. 112 (N.D.Cal.1995); Gund, Inc. v. Swank, Inc., 673 F.Supp. 1233 (S.D.N.Y.1987); Craft v. Kobler, 667 F.Supp. 120 (S.D.N.Y.1987); Dynamic Solutions, Inc. v. Planning & Control, Inc., 646 F.Supp. 1329 (S.D.N.Y.1986); Alart Assocs.., [sic] Inc. v. Aptaker, 279 F.Supp. 268 (S.D.N.Y.1968), appeal dismissed, 402 F.2d 779 (2d Cir.1968).

We are aware that most of the cases applying a fraud or prejudice standard, and permitting infringement actions despite inaccuracies in registration, involve defects in original registration certificates rather than in renewals. Original registrations can be changed at any time during the original term of copyright, while, as discussed earlier, certain errors in the renewal registration of pre-1964 works, such as the Book, could only be corrected in the last year of the original term. 17 U.S.C. § 304(a) (1983); 37 C.F.R. § 201.5(b)(2)(iv) (1983). However, the reasoning of these cases does not turn on whether or not correction is possible. Indeed, in this circuit, a lead decision applying the fraud or prejudice standard, contains language strongly implying that this standard should apply across the board, regardless of whether the applicable statutes or regulations permit corrections. See Harris, supra, at 1335 (rejecting defendant’s contention that the work had entered into the public domain because of inaccuracies in the copyright registration, and noting that the 1909 Copyright Act did not contain a statutory or regulatory scheme providing opportunity for correction of mistakes in copyright registrations).

These cases generally do not require perfection, but instead base their analyses on principles of fair and non-formalistic administration of the copyright laws. See, e.g., Huk-a-Poo Sportswear, Inc. v. Little Lisa, Ltd., 74 F.R.D. 621 (S.D.N.Y.1977) (“This court is mindful of the policy that courts seek to preserve copyrights rather than invalidate them on the basis of minor defects in registration certificates.”); Craft, supra, at 125 (even though the copyright owner had not claimed “work for hire” on the certificate of registration, the court noted that “if the facts sustain his position and if it appears that the misstatement was inadvertent, little turns on the error; the copyright is not thereby invalidated, nor is the certificate of registration rendered incapable of supporting the action”).

Maaherra argues that the Foundation’s claim is nevertheless barred even under the holdings of these cases because the Foundation intended to defraud the Copyright Office when it stated it was the “proprietor of a work made for hire.” See Dynamic Solutions, supra, at 1341 (“Errors on the registration application do not affect plaintiff’s right to sue for infringement unless they are knowing and might have caused the Copyright Office to reject the application.”)). [sic] Maaherra asserts that the Foundation did not want to reveal to the Copyright Office that the “authors” were celestial beings because the Copyright Office would have rejected the application.

There is no merit to this contention. The Foundation deposited two copies of the Book with the Copyright Office. The Book clearly describes its own origin as having been created at the instance of: “Planetary celestial