Textbook Author Denied Dastar
Textbook cases can get complicated. Those complications generally do not arise in association with the manuscript or first edition, but with the subsequent updates and revisions. This is often the result of the original authors being assisted, or superceded, by other contributing authors. Sometimes the credit and acknowledgement of each contribution is not adequately represented.
The Plaintiff, Vogel, was invited by the Defendant, textbook publisher Wolters Kluwer Health dba Lippincott et al, to author one section of the medical textbook “Pathology” in the Second and Third revisions. Plaintiff was not asked to participate in the Fourth revision; however, the Fourth revision includes portions of Plaintiff’s contributions to the preceding revisions. Plaintiff received no attribution for his earlier, iterative contributions; authorship for the Fourth revision has been credited to a completely new author-physician.
The Court of the Middle District of North Carolina granted the Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s claim of false designations of origin on the grounds that “Section 43(a) does not protect the merely communicative aspects of the goods apart from the goods themselves.” Specifically finding that Plaintiff’s interpretation of Dastar is “incorrect,” the Court held that any claims of false authorship attribution must be pursued under copyright law. The copyright claim survives the motion to dismiss and the case will go forward to trial.
Vogel v. Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. (12/30/08)