Affirming the district court’s finding that the copyrighted books at issue were works made for hire, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a copyright registration form does not constitute a "written agreement" within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. §201(b) as required to change the employment relationship between parties and the "work made for hire" status of the works. E. Price Pritchett; L.P. Pritchett v. Nancy Pound, Case No. 05-41445 (5th Cir., Dec. 18, 2006) (Reavley, J.).
Ronald Pound was hired by Pritchett, L.P., a business consulting firm founded by E. Price Pritchett. The employment contract governing Pound’s employment explicitly provided that should the employee produce any written materials in the course of his work, then materials shall be considered the exclusive property of the employer. Thereafter, Pritchett and Pound co-wrote a line of handbooks. All revenues from sales from the books went directly to the company.
Pritchett, L.P. filed copyright registrations for the two handbooks. The employee who completed the registration forms listed both Pound and Pritchett as co-authors and checked "NO" when designating whether the books were "works made for hire." For one of the books, both Pritchett and Pound signed the registration and were listed as copyright claimants.
In 1995, Pound died, and in 2002 his wife sued Pritchett in state court alleging co-ownership in the books’ copyrights and seeking an accounting and royalties. At this point, the registration forms were finally corrected to reflect that the books were works made for hire and that Pritchett, L.P. owns all of the copyrights in the books. Pritchett subsequently filed a separate suit in federal court seeking declaratory judgment that the company was the sole owner of the copyrights in the two books. The district court granted summary judgment on the issue of ownership in favor of Pritchett.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed, noting that the employment agreement between Pritchett, L.P. and Pound expressly provided that all written materials created by Pound were the exclusive property of his employer. Citing § 201(b) of the Copyright Act, the Court held that the books were a work made for hire because Pritchett and Pound did not expressly agree otherwise by "written instrument" signed by them. While the copyright registration form, if standing alone, would be some evidence of joint ownership, it does not constitute a "written instrument" that would change the employment relationship as required under the statute.
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