Opinion ID: 201895
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Copyright Action

Text: 2 The parties were engaged by the Puerto Rican Highway Authority (PRHA) to provide historical preservation services for an archeological site. On May 6, 1993, García-Goyco was employed directly by PRHA to prepare various preliminary documents during the planning and proposal phases of the project. García-Goyco prepared a Mitigation Plan in October of 1993, and a Research Design and Proposal during 1994 and 1995. On February 6, 1997, PRHA informed García-Goyco of its intent to contract with LEC to oversee the administration of the laboratory phase of the project, and requested that García-Goyco and his company, PDI, negotiate a subcontract for the delivery of archeological services directly with LEC. 3 Upon receipt of this information, on February 25, 1997, García-Goyco obtained copyrights for the two documents he had prepared pursuant to the agreement with PRHA during the planning and design phases of the project. García-Goyco then notified PRHA and LEC that they would have to negotiate for the implementation and use of those documents during the administration phase, because he owned the copyrights to the documents. 4 On September 5, 1997, PDI contracted with LEC, in writing, to provide technical services for the preliminary administration of the project in accordance with the PRHA/LEC agreement. LEC's contract with PRHA to serve as prime contractor during the administrative phase of the project was formalized in writing on November 20, 1998. It provided that [t]he [PRHA] will have a [sic] complete and unrestricted ownership rights to all Reports, Technical Memorandums, plans, data . . . or any other work product . . . prepared by [LEC] in connection with the services' performance. On January 20, 1999, García-Goyco copyrighted a third research and work plan, reworking the two documents from the prior work done for PRHA, and incorporating work done pursuant to the contract with LEC. The three copyrighted documents, as described in the district court's decision on the merits, are compilations of the works of various authors, the bulk of the content comprising historical fact discoveries, and otherwise consist primarily [of] procedures and methods of operation for the recovery, analysis and reporting of findings related to an archeological site. Osvaldo García-Goyco v. Puerto Rico Highway Auth., 275 F.Supp.2d 142, 147-49, 154 (D.P.R.2003). 5 Following LEC's supposed failure to comply with an oral contract to hire PDI for the final administrative phase of the project, on April 20, 1999, García-Goyco brought suit against LEC 1 in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. The complaint alleged copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., as well as pendent state law claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. It was undisputed that . . . LEC and the Highway Authority utilized the data in the Research Design and Work Plan prepared by plaintiff pursuant to his contracts with them. García-Goyco, 275 F.Supp.2d at 146. 6 After over two years of litigation, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of LEC on April 30, 2003. The copyright claim was dismissed with prejudice and the state law claims were dismissed without prejudice. The district court held that the works at issue were not copyrightable because: (1) they were compilations of noncopyrightable subject matter under section 102 of the Copyright Act 2 ; (2) the arrangement and selection of the noncopyrightable materials within each work lacked originality; and (3) the works were prepared in connection with a federally authorized prehistoric survey, and therefore were the property of the federal government under 36 C.F.R. § 79.3(a)(2).