The USPTO is closed the third Monday of January. In the United States we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day honoring and recognizing Dr. King’s January 15th birthday.
The Civil Rights Leader, minister and what we might now refer to as an icon, should always first be commemorated for his legacy of leadership and the indelible impact on the movement his words continue to lead. His role in the advancement of the United States toward a more equitable union cannot ever be understated; however, his words were the subject of more than a few speeches, including the most recognizable “I Have a Dream Speech” given at the march hosted by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in August of 1963. Dr. King applied for registration of his speech a month later and the U.S. Copyright Office issued the copyright on October 2, 1963.
An agreement had been made with Motown to distribute Dr. King’s speech and others from that day, but the sale of unauthorized recordings by other record companies led to litigation in the Southern District of New York. The main points of that litigation involved timing and distribution with regards to the formalities of the 1909 Copyright Act. In King v. Mister Maestro, those pirating the speech argued that by making the speech public at the march and distributing mimeographed versions to the press that did not include a copyright notice, copyright protection should not have been granted. It is important to remember that the Fair Use Doctrine was not considered, as the case predates its 1976 inception. The Court did find in favor of Dr. King, that performance of the speech and its limited release to the press did not constitute publication.
After Dr. King’s untimely & tragic death, his Heirs have continued to protect the work against many outlets seeking to have the speech categorized instead as public domain, due to it’s widespread dissemination. In 1998, a case involving CBS’s airing of the speech was nearly successful in using this argument, combined with discrepancies in the publication to enact public domain. However, the initial ruling by the Northern District of Georgia was later reversed. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was:
"unable to conclude that CBS has demonstrated beyond any genuine issue of material fact that Dr. King, simply through his oral delivery of the Speech, engaged in a general publication” and
“A performance, no matter how broad the audience, is not a publication; to hold otherwise would be to upset a long line of precedent.”
Kings’ Estate and CBS later settled, leaving Copyright mostly in-tact.
Various other litigations in connection with the speech, King’s image and Foundation associations have been brought before various Courts with varying degrees of success, and the family remains committed to preserving Dr. King’s works in a time when the internet has made it much harder to do. However, Network broadcasters still have to request a license to broadcast the entire speech. As it stands now, this should remain the case until 2058.
Click here for more information on copyrights and infringement litigation.
