Intellectual Property » Elegant Formula For Determining Fair Use Rejected By 11th Circuit

Elegant Formula For Determining Fair Use Rejected By 11th Circuit

January 21, 2015

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The concept of “fair use” is hard to define, but Georgia State University made it somewhat easier with a four-part test that its professors used to determine if particular book materials they wanted to copy and make available on-line to students would qualify. That checklist, explains a post from Fredrikson & Byron IP attorney Paul E. Thomas, closely mirrors the four-part fair-use statutory test. A district court accepted GSU’s formula – and more important, how it applied the formula, with each factor so to speak getting one “vote” – and ruled in favor of the university in its determination that a professor’s use of materials was fair use. But the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said the four-part test must be applied in a more case-specific manner, with some factors being more or less important depending on circumstance, as it rejected the district court’s conclusion and remanded the case.

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