Today’s case comes out of North Carolina. Bar Bri Bar Review published essays from the North Carolina Bar Exam and designed lectures around how the material is tested on the exam.
The Board of Law Examiners sued, claiming a copyright in the essay questions and demanding a permanent injunction and an award of actual damages or $150,000 for each act of “willful infringement.” The publishing company defended the action by arguing that the plaintiffs, as a state agency, lacked legislative authority to register and enforce copyrights in the bar exam essay questions.
I have been a big critic of the corporate bar review industry for many years, despite the fact that I owe much of my business to their incompetence. This time around, I think the bar review people had the better argument.
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