Martin v. Little, Brown & Co.

450 A.2d 984 (1981)

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Martin v. Little, Brown & Co.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania
450 A.2d 984 (1981)

SC
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Facts

James Martin (plaintiff) sent a letter to Little, Brown & Co. (Little) (defendant) in which he told Little that portions of one of its books, How to Buy Stocks, had been plagiarized by another book. Martin gave Little the name of the other book and the passages that were copied from How to Buy Stocks. The information from Martin was unsolicited by Little, and compensation for the information was never requested or discussed. Little filed a copyright infringement against the plagiarizing party and upon hearing this, Martin demanded compensation from Little for his information and then filed suit to obtain it. The trial court dismissed Martin’s suit. Martin appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Wieand, J.)

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