Hartfield v. Peterson

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit for infringement of a copyrighted cable and telegraphic code prepared by the complainant, Hartfield, of which he obtained the copyright in 1912. The defendant Peterson compiled a code copyrighted in 1929 known as “Peterson’s International Code 3rd Edition” which was published and sold by Peterson Cipher Code Corporation, of which Peterson was the president. Judge Coxe held upon the trial in the District Court that the defendants infringed Hart-field’s copyright and awarded a decree in his favor for $5,000 statutory damages, $2,-000 counsel fees,…