A 3 Month Check-In on the Copyright Claims Board (CCB)

September 21, 2022 · by · in Copyright

On September 19, I gathered some CCB stats. This was 95 days after launch.

155 claims had been filed as of that date. (Today, the number is 157). That implies an annual run rate of less than 600 claims. Every time I compute the annual run rate, it keeps dropping, suggesting there was a rush of filings at the beginning.

Of the 155 cases, 11 had been dismissed already (at least in part). Here’s the breakdown (the numbers are the case numbers, which are issued seriatim starting with 1):

  • 5 cases dismissed due to opt-outs: 2 (two different defendants opted-out), 7, 10, 13, 52. As usual, I haven’t looked yet to see if these will be refiled in federal court or if they are permanently dead.
  • 2 cases withdrawn: 18, 141
  • 4 cases dismissed due to filing deficiencies: 16 (general deficiencies), 19 (failure to adequately allege access and substantial similarity), 22 (general deficiencies), 44 (omitted defendant’s address). Filing deficiencies aren’t surprising in a “small claims” court, but they are also not really helpful to anyone.

So, of the first 20 cases filed, 7 (over 1/3) have ended already (at least in part) before reaching any substantive issues. This continues to highlight my biggest question about the CCB: how many plaintiffs will it help who could not have solved their problems in federal court? Right now, it’s looking like that number potentially will be quite small–raising the obvious related questions about Congress’ priorities in December 2020 and the Copyright Office’s resource allocations.

Prior Blog Posts on the CCB