Eltra Corp. v. Ringer

Eltra Corp. v. Ringer was a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which determined that typefaces were not eligible for protection under U.S. copyright law. The United States Copyright Office had refused to register a typeface design owned by Eltra Corporation, who filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The district court held that the design submitted did not qualify as a "work of art" under the 1909 Copyright Act. The appellate court affirmed this decision.

Eltra Corporation v. Barbara A. Ringer
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Full case name	Eltra Corp. v. Barbara A. Ringer, International Typographic Composition Association and Advertising Typographers Association of America, Inc.
Argued	June 14 1978
Decided	June 14 1978
Citation(s)	579 F.2d 294
Case history
Prior action(s)	Appeal from The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Holding
Found that typefaces were not protectable expression.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Harrison Lee Winter, Donald S. Russell, Hiram Emory Widener, Jr.
Keywords
Typeface, United states copyright law