United States Sixth Circuit

Under 17 U.S.C. section 304(a), when a copyright to an author's work is renewed after the author's death and that author is survived by a spouse and children, the surviving spouse holds a fifty-percent share in the renewed copyright and the surviving children hold equal divided shares in the remaining fifty-percent.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/28/2005
• Published 01/28/2005

Judges

• Before:  SILER, DAUGHTREY, and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Walter Robert Thompson, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Jay S. Bowen, Bowen, Riley, Warnock & Jacobson, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Walter Robert Thompson, Nashville, Tennessee, John J. Griffin, Jr., Kay, Griffin, Enkema & Brothers, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Jay S. Bowen, Amy C. Martin, Bowen, Riley, Warnock & Jacobson, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. John C. Beiter, Robert L. Sullivan, Loeb & Loeb, Nashville, Tennessee, for Amici Curiae.