United States Federal Circuit

In an action against the government arising from an Air Force employee's refusal to provide the Air Force with the source code for a software program he had written on his own time and subsequently shared with other Air Force personnel, dismissals of copyright infringement and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims for lack of jurisdiction are affirmed where: 1) the limited waivers of sovereign immunity contained in the copyright infringement statutes were properly construed as jurisdictional requirements; 2) the burden to prove jurisdiction was properly placed on plaintiff; 3) plaintiff's copyright infringement claim fell within provisos excepting it from the waiver of sovereign immunity; and 4) the DMCA contains no express or implied waiver of sovereign immunity.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/25/2008
• Published 07/25/2008

Judges

• GAJARSA, Circuit Judge., Before MICHEL, Chief Judge, CLEVENGER, Senior Circuit Judge, and GAJARSA, Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Kurt M. Rylander, Rylander & Associates, PC, of Vancouver, WA, argued for plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Scott Bolden, Senior Trial Counsel, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee.   With him on the brief were Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and John J. Fargo, Director.