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Matthew Bender & Co v West Publishing, 158 F.3d 693 (2nd Cir. 1998)

PLAINTIFF: Matthew Bender & Company manufactures and markets compilations of judicial opinions stored on compact disc-read only memory ("CD-ROM") discs, in which opinions they embed (or intend to embed) citations that show the page location of the particular text in West's printed version of the opinions (so-called "star pagination"). DEFENDANT : West Publishing Co. creates and publishes printed compilations of federal and state judicial opinions. West appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Martin, J.), granting summary judgment of noninfringement to Bender. West's primary contention on appeal was that star pagination to West's case reporters allows a user of plaintiffs' CD-ROM discs (by inputting a series of commands) to "perceive" West's copyright-protected arrangement of cases, and that plaintiffs' products (when star pagination is added) are unlawful copies of [p*696] West's arrangement. Court rejected West's arguments based upon two issues. First, specification of the initial page of a West case reporter in plaintiffs' products ("parallel citation") is permissible under the fair use doctrine; West's arrangement may be perceived through parallel citation and thus the plaintiffs may lawfully create a copy of West's arrangement of cases; the incremental benefit of star pagination is that it allows the reader to perceive West's page breaks within each opinion, which are not protected by its copyright; and star pagination does not create a "copy" of any protected elements of West's compilations or infringe West's copyrights. Second, assuming the first not to exist, "under a proper reading of the Copyright Act, the insertion of star pagination does not amount to infringement of West's arrangement of cases." HELD: hold that Bender and HyperLaw will not infringe West's copyright by inserting star pagination to West's case reporters in their CD-ROM disc version of judicial opinions. The judgement of the district court is affirmed.