Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd. v. Corel Corp.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999)
Bridgeman Art Library (plaintiff) claimed UK copyrights in color transparencies and digital images of paintings that were themselves in the public domain in the United States, and sued Corel Corporation (defendant) for copyright infringement after Corel sold CD-ROMs containing similar images of the same paintings. The district court initially granted Corel summary judgment, finding Bridgeman's reproductions lacked the originality required for U.S. copyright protection; Bridgeman moved for reconsideration, arguing the Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention obligated the U.S. to honor its UK copyrights regardless.
Whether, under the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, copyright protection can be extended in the United States to a work protected under foreign law that would not itself qualify for copyright protection under U.S. law.