Ninth Circuit Considers Copyright In Data Compilations

On June 27, 2018, in Experian Info Sols v Nationwide Mktg Servs, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the Court) affirmed (in part) a decision from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona (District Court) granting summary judgment on Experian Information Solutions Inc (Experian)'s claim for copyright infringement.

The appellant, Experian, a company in the business of compiling databases of information and licensing portions of these databases to companies for use in marketing campaigns, alleged that the defendant, Nationwide Marketing Services Inc (Natimark), a competitor of Experian, had copied one of their databases. The District Court granted summary judgment for Natimark, holding that Experian did not have a valid copyright in its compilation, because the compilation of name and address pairings lacked sufficient creativity or originality.