Wrench v. Universal Pictures Co.

Emily Kimbrough Wrench (plaintiff) wrote several short stories, the first of which was published in 1944 in the magazine The Atlantic Monthly and the second of which was published in 1945 in the magazine The New Yorker. The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker owned the respective copyrights in the first and second stories. Wrench sold all motion picture rights in the two stories as well as a third to Universal Picture Company (Universal) (defendant). The contract also granted Universal the rights to additional stories and adaptations and required Wrench to protect the copyrights on the stories by ensuring the stories were published with the proper copyright notice pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1909. Universal paid Wrench a down payment and agreed to pay royalties to Wrench for a compilation of her stories to be published in a book. The book was eventually published in 1948 and included a copyright notice with the years 1945 and 1948. Because the notice did not include the year 1944—the date Wrench’s first story was published—or mention the fact that the story had been previously published in The Atlantic Monthly, Universal believed that the copyright notice on the book was insufficient. Universal, therefore, sought to rescind the contract, recoup its down payment, and withhold payment of royalties for the book. Wrench filed suit against Universal for breach of contract. Universal moved for summary judgment, arguing that, because the book’s copyright notice did not include the year the first story was originally published, the first story was thus placed in the public domain when the book was published. Universal argued, therefore, that Wrench had failed to protect the copyrights on the stories as she had agreed.