Experian Information Solutions, Inc. v. Nationwide Marketing Services, Inc.

Experian (plaintiff) compiled a database pairing 250 million consumers' names and addresses by selecting and reconciling data from 2,200 sources using algorithms and judgment to exclude unreliable or irrelevant entries. Nationwide Marketing Services (Natimark) (defendant) acquired a 200-million-consumer database; when a Natimark broker tried to sell Experian a related data set, Experian found over 90 percent of it matched its own proprietary data and suspected theft. Experian sued for copyright infringement, and the trial court granted Natimark summary judgment, finding the data pairings insufficiently creative to be copyrightable.