Court Opinion

ID: 9453134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:03:48.781568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:31.645962
License: Public Domain

CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my view, the findings supporting non-infringement are “clearly erroneous” within the meaning of Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A tenth of the towns listed in defendant’s Reliance Guide are no population towns.1 The documentary evidence discloses that defendant's guide contains 16% of Rand McNally’s no population towns. Of such towns in plaintiff’s guide, 75.4% are in defendant’s, and 96.6% of the no population towns in defendant’s guide are in plaintiff’s.2 This overlap was never satisfactorily explained by defendant and shows that although defendant omitted 25% of the no population towns in plaintiff’s guide, he included scarcely any such towns unless they were in plaintiff’s guide. Here the testimony offered by defendant was conclusively rebutted by the unchallenged documents, so that on the entire evidence, one is “left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746. Therefore, the no substantial copying findings should not be permitted to stand. Defendant’s use of plaintiff’s guide in selecting no population towns for his Reliance Guide was an unfair use and infringed plaintiff’s copyright.3 Other compelling proof of infringement appears in defendant’s copying of five of plaintiff’s 50 new fictitious “trap” towns into the Reliance Guide, his use of plaintiff’s guide in updating post office information in various states, and in common errors with respect to a post office |nd several express offices in Utah. The judgment should be reversed.

. Rand McNally pocket maps of the states include a booklet listing each state’s towns alphabetically. These lists include many places for which no population is shown; these are the no population towns.

. These percentages are taken from a sampling over various states, but their accuracy as representative of all states has not been disputed by plaintiff.

. Adventures in Good Eating, Inc. v. Best Places to Eat, Inc., 131 F.2d 809, 811 (7th Cir. 1942); List Publishing Co. v. Keller, 30 F. 772, 773-774 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1887); Nimmer on Copyright (1967), § 29.4.