Law note · United States (federal only)
International News Service v. Associated Press
cite 248 U.S. 215 (1918)
stage IN FORCE
The Supreme Court held that a wire service copying factual news content from a competitor's public bulletins and distributing it to customers constituted actionable unfair competition (misappropriation), even though bare facts are not copyrightable. This decision established the 'hot-news' doctrine, though the Supreme Court later abandoned federal common law in Erie R.R. v. Tompkins (1938), leaving hot-news claims to state law and Copyright Act preemption analysis.
Primary source: Justia Supreme Court
verified citation 248 U.S. 215