In a case involving publication of industry standards, the US
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed a grant of
summary judgment in favor of private organizations under the
Copyright Act and Lanham Act's fair use doctrines. American
Society for Testing and Materials, et al. v. Public.Resource.Org,
Inc., Case No. 17-7035 (DC Cir. July 17, 2018) (Tatel, J).
The issue began when Public.Resource.Org (PRO) purchased copies
of industry standards from Standards Developing Organizations
(SDOs), scanned them into digital files and uploaded them onto a
public website. PRO is a nonprofit organization that makes
available online a variety of public documents, such as federal
rules about safety, government-produced videos and product designs.
Several SDOs filed a lawsuit asserting that they owned the
copyrights to the material uploaded by PRO.
