Opinion ID: 2974224
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: LawMode’s automation of the forms

Text: LawMode’s automation is not sufficiently original to warrant copyright protection. By “automation” we here mean the selection and placement of input fields for the form templates such that the desired information appears in the proper places on the SCAO forms. This copyright claim has two parts. First, LawMode claims that Lexis copied the appearance of the dialog boxes where a user enters information. LawMode does not have a valid copyright in the appearance of the dialog boxes because LawMode used the default settings on HotDocs, the tool used to create the templates. Choosing the default setting on an underlying authoring tool is not sufficiently creative to warrant copyright protection. Second, LawMode claims that Lexis copied the “automation” by copying the interrelationship of variables in the program. LawMode’s automation is not sufficiently creative to support a copyright because the choices that can be made to create templates to automate the SCAO forms are very limited. In fact, the choices are limited by the express dictates of the forms themselves. Thus, there is not enough originality in the “automation” to support a copyright.
Copyright law does not afford LawMode protection for the appearance of the dialog boxes because the appearance is not sufficiently original. The appearance is largely a result of the default settings on HotDocs, the template’s authoring tool. LawMode’s and Lexis’s dialog boxes look very similar, such that a user who looked at LawMode’s and Lexis’s dialog boxes would have a hard time telling the two products apart. Both of the dialog boxes are rectangular and have a blue-shaded header. The area in between text boxes is gray and the fonts are the same. In the table of contents, folders are displayed next to an icon that looks like a manila legal folder. The icon that lets a user close a dialog box is a large red X and the help icon is a blue question mark. These similarities result from both Lexis’s and LawMode’s using HotDocs as the authoring tool. The appearance of the dialog boxes is not original because it is a function of HotDocs’ default settings. It is undisputed that the appearance of the dialog boxes is a function of the default settings on HotDocs. LawMode, however, points out that Lexis could have changed the appearance of the dialog boxes by not opting for the default settings. LawMode argues that Lexis chose the default settings, and thus Lexis copied LawMode’s “creative” choice by also using HotDocs’ default settings in its product. LawMode’s choice to use the default settings is not subject to copyright protection. Some programming choices are either too trivial to support a finding of originality or are so constrained by practical reality as to lack originality. See generally Lexmark Int’l Inc. v. Static Control No. 05-1513 Ross Brovins & Oehmke v. Lexis Nexis Group Page 7 Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522, 540-41 (6th Cir. 2004). LawMode’s “choice” to use HotDocs’ default settings was too trivial to be original because using the default setting amounted to no more than adopting the choices made by the developer of HotDocs. Copyright law extends protection to works that are “independently created by the author (as opposed to copied from other works).” See Feist, 499 U.S. 345-46. LawMode’s choice to use the default settings is more in the nature of copying from other works than independent creation. In the instant case, as Lexis’s software developer stated in her affidavit, HotDocs’ default settings are the most efficient choice. LawMode’s choice to use the default settings is not copyrightable because the decision to copy another person’s creative choice does not create an original work. As the district court noted, the fact that LawMode chose [HotDocs’] “default” settings is simply the result of [HotDocs’] preselecting the most convenient and efficient choices for the automator. LawMode’s choosing to use [HotDocs’] default settings, as opposed to selecting other less efficient options for automating the forms, also does not exhibit the amount of creativity necessary to support a copyright. Ross, Brovins & Oehmke, P.C. v. Lexis Nexis, 348 F. Supp. 2d. 845, 861 (E.D. Mich. 2004).
Copyright law also does not afford protection to LawMode’s interrelation of variables in the templates, because the interrelation of variables is too basic and is compelled by the express terms of the underlying forms. A software designer might have copyrightable creative expression in the way that variables interact, particularly where the interrelationship of variables communicates information to the user that is not contained within the express terms of the form. LawMode’s programing choices, however, communicate no information and thus are not copyrightable. The variables in LawMode’s templates are interrelated. By “interrelated” we mean that the data entered on one template will affect the choices available on future templates. For example, if a user indicates that the user will be filing in a district court, the drop down box containing specific courts is activated so that the user can select the specific court. Correspondingly, the fields related to circuit courts are deactivated such that the user is not prompted to enter a specific circuit court. This makes sense because a case cannot be simultaneously filed both in a district court and in a circuit court. The interrelation of variables is dictated by the express terms of the forms and is not creative expression. By the express terms of the form, a case can be filed only in one court. Thus, the programming choice to permit the user the option of choosing a circuit court or a district court does not convey any information that is not expressly dictated by the terms of the forms. There is nothing original in translating the express terms of a form into HotDocs. See Feist, 499 U.S. 345-46. LawMode’s programming choices that merely follow the instructions on the underlying form are not creative expression protected by copyright. Though LawMode refers to Bucklew v. Hawkins, Ash, Baptie & Co., 329 F.3d 923 (7th Cir. 2003), in support of its argument that LawMode’s automation is copyrightable, Bucklew actually favors Lexis because it illustrates that interrelationship of variables dictated by the express terms of the forms is not creative expression. Bucklew developed a software program using a standard spreadsheet application (e.g., Excel) that filled in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) forms. Id. at 925-26. The HUD forms required some arithmetic manipulations of salary data and other expenditures. Id. at 926. Bucklew’s program automatically performed required arithmetic after the user entered the raw data. Id. The Seventh Circuit held that three computerized forms were not copyrightable. Id. at 930-31. Though there was limited discussion of the role of interrelated variables in the court’s decision, the Seventh Circuit reversed despite the fact that Bucklew’s forms had interrelated variables. In many respects Bucklew’s forms were very similar to LawMode’s No. 05-1513 Ross Brovins & Oehmke v. Lexis Nexis Group Page 8 forms. Both were computerized templates that filled in preexisting forms. Both had interrelated variables where an entry in one section would affect the result in another section. Yet, the interactive variables did not save Bucklew’s forms from a finding of uncopyrightability as a matter of law. In Bucklew, like this case, the interrelationship of variables was dictated by the express terms of the forms. Bucklew could not copyright the fact that his program added the figures as required by the HUD forms. Id. at 928. Similarly, LawMode cannot copyright the fact that its program interrelated variables to permit a user to pick only one court because the underlying form only permits a user to pick one court. Cases where interrelation of variables did support a copyright are distinguishable from this case because in those cases the interrelated variables communicated information to the user not contained within the express terms of a form. For example, in Manufacturers Technologies Inc. v. Cams Inc., a computerized form for estimating repair costs was held copyrightable where the form communicated information to the user about how parts needed to be identified, and the identification of parts affected the derivation of an estimate. 706 F. Supp. 984, 997 (D. Conn. 1989). That the forms in Manufacturers Technologies communicated information not contained on the face of the form to the user is the key distinction between copyrightable computerized forms and the uncopyrightable forms in this case. LawMode’s programming is not copyrightable because LawMode’s programming communicated no information not expressly contained on the face of the underlying forms. LawMode’s “automation” is not copyrightable because it merely translates the express terms of the underlying forms and does not convey new information.