Supreme Court Decision Alert - December 13, 2010

Originally published December 13, 2010

Keywords: copyright act, first sale doctrine, transfer ownership, copyright owner

Copyright Act—First Sale Doctrine's Application to Goods Manufactured Abroad

Under the Copyright Act's first-sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109(a), the owner of any particular copy "lawfully made under this title" may sell or otherwise transfer ownership of that copy without the authorization of the copyright owner. In Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. L'anza Research International, Inc., 523 U.S. 135 (1998), which involved domestically manufactured goods that were sold abroad and then imported back into the United States, the Supreme Court held that the first-sale doctrine is applicable to imported copies. In April of this year, after the Ninth Circuit limited Quality King to its facts and held that the statutory phrase "lawfully made under this title" applies only to domestically manufactured goods, the Supreme Court