BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corp. v. Donnelley Information Publishing, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
999 F.2d 1436 (1993)
- Written by Sarah Holley, JD
Facts
BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corp. (plaintiff) published a yellow-pages directory for the Greater Miami area. BellSouth arranged its directory in an alphabetized list of business types, with individual businesses listed in alphabetical order under the applicable headings. BellSouth selected the headings offered to each business, and the business selected from those alternatives the headings under which it would ultimately appear in the directory. Meanwhile, Donnelley Information Publishing, Inc. (defendant) began promoting and selling a competing directory. Donnelley generated a list of businesses to solicit for its directory from the BellSouth directory and created a computer database using telephone numbers, addresses, and business types taken from the BellSouth directory. Relying on this information, Donnelley published its competing directory for the Greater Miami area. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of BellSouth on its copyright-infringement claim, and the court of appeals affirmed. On petition for certiorari, the Supreme Court vacated the decision and remanded to the district court for reconsideration.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Birch, J.)
Dissent (Hatchett, J.)
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