Raymond Rohauer, Doing Business as the Coronet Theater v. Leopold Friedman, Trustee in Liquidation of the Assets of Buster Keaton Productions, Inc.

This appeal is brought from a judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of California which decrees that appellee is the owner of a valid copyright in a motion picture entitled “The Navigator”. The judgment further decrees that appellant has infringed the copyright by exhibiting the motion picture without authority from the appellee, and that appellant is thereby enjoined from further infringement of the copyright in any manner whatsoever.

The facts as stipulated to by the parties are set forth in the Pre-Trial Conference Order and may be briefly summarized as follows: Appellee (Plaintiff in the District Court) is the surviving Trustee in Liquidation of the assets of Buster Keaton Productions, Inc., which prior to October 14, 1924 produced the motion picture film “The Navigator”. This motion picture was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, which corporation on or about October 14, 1924 applied for and received from the Copyright Office of the United States a Certificate of Registration of Copyright on said motion picture.

In late November, 1937 Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. transferred all its motion picture interests (inclusive of “The Navigator”) to…