Fox Film Corp. v. Knowles, 261 U.S. 326 (1923)

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Fox Film Corp. v. Knowles

Nos. 310

, 311

Argued February 27, 1923
Decided March 12, 1923
261 U.S. 326

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. Under § 24 of the Copyright Act of 1909, which allows renewals of copyrights subsisting when it went into effect with the proviso that application shall be made and registered within the period of one year prior to expiration of the existing term, an author’s executor may renew within that year although the author died before its commencement, so that the right to file application did not accrue in his lifetime. P. 328.

2. The statute intends that an executor, there being no widow, widower, or child, shall have the same right as his testator might have exercised had he continued to survive. P. 329.

3. It is no novelty for an executor to be given rights by statute which his testator could not have exercised while he lived. P. 330.

279 F. 1018 reversed.

Certiorari to decrees of the circuit court of appeals affirming the district court in dismissing bills brought by the petitioner, as assignee of copyright privileges, to restrain infringements and for accounting and damages.