## Facts

- Maclean Hunter Market Reports, Inc. published the Automobile Red Book, a used-car valuation guide issued multiple times per year in regional editions.
- The Red Book listed projected “average” used-car values for the coming weeks, with adjustments by vehicle characteristics, options, and mileage increments.
- The valuation numbers were not historical prices or formulaic averages; they were editors’ forecasts based on multiple information sources and professional judgment.
- CCC Information Services, Inc. operated a computerized used-car valuation database for insurers and others.
- CCC copied substantial portions of Red Book valuation figures into its competing database product.
- CCC sued for a declaratory judgment of noninfringement; Maclean counterclaimed for copyright infringement.
- The district court granted summary judgment to CCC, treating the valuation figures as unprotectable facts or, alternatively, as merged with unprotectable ideas.

## Issues

1. Whether projected used-car valuation figures created through editorial judgment constitute copyrightable subject matter or unprotectable facts.
2. Whether the Red Book qualifies for copyright protection as an original compilation after *Feist*.
3. Whether the idea–expression merger doctrine bars protection for valuation figures as the only way to express a “correct” price.
4. Whether state regulatory use of Red Book valuations placed the valuations into the public domain.
5. Whether CCC’s copying into a competing database could constitute infringement if the valuations and/or compilation are protected.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for CCC and remanded.
- The court held that the Red Book’s valuation figures reflected sufficient originality to be copyrightable because they were predictive judgments, not discovered historical facts.
- The court concluded the work also had protectable elements as a compilation, including selection and arrangement choices in how valuation information was organized.
- The court rejected CCC’s idea–expression merger argument because alternative expressions and valuation approaches were available.
- The court rejected the public-domain argument based on regulatory adoption or reliance, finding no forfeiture or abandonment of copyright.
- Given the protectability of the work, CCC’s substantial copying could support an infringement claim, making summary judgment for CCC improper.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright protects original expression, including opinion-based or predictive numerical estimates produced through professional judgment, even when presented in data form.
- “Facts” for copyright purposes are typically independently verifiable occurrences; subjective forecasts are not treated as discovered facts merely because they convey information.
- After *Feist*, compilations of information remain protectable to the extent they embody a minimal degree of creativity, including in selection, arrangement, or creation of the informational content.
- Idea–expression merger applies only when an idea can be expressed in only one or a very limited number of ways; where multiple valuation methods or numerical expressions are possible, merger does not bar protection.
- Governmental or regulatory use of a copyrighted work does not, without more, dedicate the work to the public domain or extinguish the owner’s rights.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that Maclean’s Red Book valuations were original, judgment-based forecasts and therefore copyrightable, and that the Red Book also contained protectable compilation elements; it rejected merger and public-domain defenses tied to regulatory use, reversed summary judgment for CCC, and remanded for further proceedings on infringement.


CCC Info. Servs., Inc. v. Maclean Hunter Mkt. Reps., Inc., 44 F.3d 61 (2d Cir. 1994)