United States Tenth Circuit

In a copyright infringement action based on Defendant's alleged copying of Plaintiff's independent-engineer reports, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed in part, where Plaintiff's state-law claims were preempted by the Copyright Act; but reversed in part, where Plaintiff created genuine disputes of material fact by presenting evidence that: 1) Plaintiff did not take the language in its copyrighted reports from a third-party report; and 2) the copyrighted reports derived their language from earlier, nonpublic reports prepared by Plaintiff.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/14/2009
• Published 08/14/2009

Judges

• HARTZ, Circuit Judge., Before HARTZ, HOLLOWAY, and McKAY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Natalie Hanlon-Leh (Mary V. Sooter with her on the briefs), of Faegre & Benson LLP, Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Benjamin B. Lieb (Ian R. Walsworth with him on the brief), of Sheridan Ross P.C., Denver, CO, for Defendant-Appellant.