Assessing the Copyright Small Claims Court After One Year

Abstract

In June 2023 the U.S. Copyright Office celebrated the one-year anniversary of operations of the Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”), a novel new small claims court housed within the agency. The CCB was preceded by years of debate about the benefits and risks of such a small claims court. Proponents argued that the CCB would offer rightsholders a low-cost, efficient alternative to litigation in federal courts, allowing small creators to more effectively defend their rights. Opponents feared that the CCB would foster abuse, encouraging frivolous lawsuits while creating a trap for unwary defendants. This article tests those arguments in the first detailed empirical review of the CCB’s first year of operations based on data extracted from the CCB’s online filing system for the 487 claims filed with the court between June 2022 and June 2023.

Keywords: Copyright, Administrative Law