Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 856 F.3d 1338

Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp., a news publisher, licensed articles to Wall-Street.com but retained copyright; Wall-Street allegedly continued displaying articles after license cancellation.
Fourth Estate filed a copyright-infringement complaint alleging it had filed applications to register the works with the Copyright Office but did not allege the Office had acted on the applications.
Defendants moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to satisfy 17 U.S.C. § 411(a), which requires registration or refusal before an infringement suit may be filed.
The district court dismissed without prejudice for failure to plead compliance with the registration requirement.
The Eleventh Circuit reviewed de novo and addressed whether “registration” occurs upon filing an application or only when the Register of Copyrights issues registration (or refusal).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
When does registration occur under 17 U.S.C. § 411(a)?	Filing the application (deposit, application, fee) suffices to satisfy § 411(a).	Registration occurs only when the Register of Copyrights acts (registers or refuses) after examination.	Registration occurs when the Register registers the claim (or refuses it); filing alone is insufficient.

Cosmetic Ideas, Inc. v. IAC/Interactivecorp, 606 F.3d 612 (9th Cir. 2010) (adopts application-approach: filing suffices)
La Resolana Architects, PA v. Clay Realtors Angel Fire, 416 F.3d 1195 (10th Cir. 2005) (adopts registration-approach: Register must act first)
Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010) (registration requirement is a precondition to suit, not a jurisdictional bar)
M.G.B. Homes, Inc. v. Ameron Homes, Inc., 903 F.2d 1486 (11th Cir. 1990) (earlier Eleventh Circuit language endorsing registration-approach)
Kernel Records Oy v. Mosley, 694 F.3d 1294 (11th Cir. 2012) (discusses incentives to register and references Eleventh Circuit precedent)
Positive Black Talk, Inc. v. Cash Money Records, Inc., 394 F.3d 357 (5th Cir. 2004) (adopts application-approach)