## Facts

- The dispute concerned several U.S. silent motion pictures featuring Buster Keaton, created in the United States between 1921 and 1928.
- By the 1970s, the films were in the public domain in the United States.
- On September 18, 1970, Raymond Rohauer purchased rights in the Buster Keaton films from the trustee in bankruptcy of Buster Keaton Production Inc.
- In 1972, Rohauer granted Janus Film u. Fernsehen Vertriebgesellschaft mbH (Janus) an exclusive license to exploit the films in the Federal Republic of Germany and other German-speaking countries through December 31, 1979.
- Atlas Film + AV GmbH & Co. Verleih u. Vertrieb (Atlas) had previously been licensed to exploit the same films and continued to use them after Janus obtained its exclusive license.
- Atlas argued it could continue exploiting the films because (in Atlas’s view) the films were no longer under copyright in the Federal Republic of Germany.
- Atlas relied on provisions of the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), pointing to the films’ public-domain status in the United States.
- Janus sued Atlas, asserting the films remained protected by copyright in the Federal Republic of Germany and that Atlas’s continued exploitation violated the exclusive license.
- The lower court dismissed Janus’s complaint, and Janus appealed to the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH).

## Issues

1. Whether the Buster Keaton films, though in the public domain in the United States, remained protected by copyright in the Federal Republic of Germany during the license period.
2. Whether the UCC required Germany to treat the films as unprotected (or to limit protection by reference to the term in the United States).
3. Whether, if German copyright subsisted, an exclusive territorial licensee could enforce that exclusivity against a competing distributor exploiting the films without consent.

## Decision

- The BGH reversed the dismissal of Janus’s complaint.
- The BGH held that the films could remain protected in the Federal Republic of Germany even though they were in the public domain in the United States.
- The BGH rejected Atlas’s argument that the UCC automatically eliminated German protection merely because U.S. protection had lapsed.
- The BGH recognized that, where German rights existed and an exclusive license covered the territory and period at issue, the exclusive licensee could seek relief against unauthorized exploitation inconsistent with that exclusivity.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright is territorial; a work’s public-domain status in one country does not by itself decide whether the work is protected in another country.
- The UCC does not, by itself, require a forum state to deny protection solely because protection has ended in the work’s country of origin; absent a domestic rule tying protection to the foreign term, the forum may apply its own protection rules.
- Exclusive exploitation rights granted for a defined territory and period can be enforced against third parties whose conduct interferes with the exclusivity, provided the underlying right is protected under the forum’s law.

## Conclusion

Atlas Film v. Janus Film held that Buster Keaton films could still be protected in Germany despite being in the U.S. public domain, and that UCC-based arguments did not automatically remove German protection; accordingly, Janus’s exclusive German-language license could be enforced to stop Atlas’s continued exploitation during the licensed term.


Atlas Film + AV GmbH & Co. Verleih u. Vertrieb v. Janus Film u. Fernsehen Vertriebgesellschaft mbH, I ZR 97/76, 10 International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law 358 (1979)