QUESTION
Can I legally Publish a " Transcript of Proceedings" as part of my 8 chapters book?
Asked on Oct 14th, 2013 on Intellectual Property - Nevada
More details to this question:
I was part of a Civil Court Case in jan.06, was contesting and lost. I had the Transcript of proceedings ( of the hearing ) transcribed as I was considering an appeal. I decided not to appeal however Today am writing a book to tell my side of the story and would like to know if this Transcript can be legally published as part of my Book? I believe it was Public Records until it was destroyed per NV statute after two years. Any information will be very appreciated.
1 ANSWER
Intellectual Property Attorney serving Manchester, NH
at
Hayes Soloway P.C.
Update Your Profile
A transcript of legal proceedings prepared by the court reporter is generally going to be public domain material, not unlike statutes or judicial opinions. There are situations where a private entity (e.g., Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis) publishes the material in their own format and the format carries some copyright protection. If the notice is prepared by a private entity, and the entity cares about the trademark, they will put some for of copyright notice at the beginning or ending of the work. If it is not there, you are most likely free to copy it and sell it as part of your book, keeping in mind that you do not gain any copyright control/ownership over the transcript that you copied.
Answered on Oct 15th, 2013 at 2:25 PM