National Tel. News Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co.

Citations

• 119 F. 294
• 60 L.R.A. 805
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4668

Syllabus

<p>1. Literary Property—Matter Subject to Copyright—Telegraphic Quo TATIONS.</p> <p>The matter gathered and transmitted by a telegraph company, and printed on a tape by tickers in the offices of its customers, consisting merely of a notation of current events, such as market quotations or the result of a race or game, and having only a transient value, due solely to its quick transmission and distribution, is not copyrightable as literary property, under the constitution and statutes of the United States, but is essentially a commercial product.</p> <p>2. Unfair Competition—Telegraph Companies—Copying of Market Quotations. 1</p> <p>The gathering of news and its transmission by telegraph is a legitimate business enterprise, carried on through the joint agency of capital and business ability, and as such is entitled to protection, in all its branches, from unfair competition, on the principle which governs courts of equity in granting relief against infringement of common-law trade-marks; and a company engaged in such business, which gathers at its own cost, and distributes to its customers by means of special wires and tickers, news in which they have a peculiar interest, and for which they pay, such ‘as market quotations,—the value of the business to the company depending upon its ability, through the facilities it has created, by the expenditure of money, to furnish such- news immediately after the occurrences noted,—cannot be said to have thereby published such news, in such sense as to entitle a competitor to copy the same from a customer’s tape as fast as received, and distribute it to its own patrons.</p> <p>¶1. Matter subject to copyright, see note to Drill Co. v. Mullen, 27 C. O. A. 248.</p> <p>¶2. Unfair competition, see notes to Scheuer v. Muller, 20 C. C. A. 165; Lare v. Harper & Bros., 30 C. C. A. 376.</p> <p>Note. BAKER, Circuit Judge, though not sitting in this case, read, in connection with the following case, Illinois Commission Co. v. Cleveland Tel.