Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Copyright to prevent duplication of Paper Forms

One fundamental requirement of a work that is eligible for copyright is that it be "original." As legal forms (and many other forms for that matter) provide for common procedures or recordation, they are not ordinarily protected. For example, inserting your name and address in a form's spaces hardly gives protection to the written direction [Fill in your name]. There may be some forms whose originality is so obvious that copyright protection might apply but in 30+ years of practice, i've never seen an infringement case on forms. Perhaps another poster might be able to cite one. An interesting wrinkle would be whether there would be an infringement if someone copied the code of a DVD that generated forms. I suspect that would be an infringement, but of the code, not the forms generated thereby.

Re: Copyright to prevent duplication of Paper Forms

I agree with Mr. Mark. But that doesn't mean that Bloomberg wouldn't have an interest in stopping you if they find you.