Smith v. Payne/Opinion of the Court

by Henry Billings Brown

United States Supreme Court

194 U.S. 104

Smith  v.  Payne

 Argued: March 11, 1904. ---

Plaintiffs are the publishers of several different series of novels under the names of The Columbia Library, The Bertha Clay Library, The Magnet Detective Library, The Medal Library, The Undine Library, The Eden Series, The Arrow Library, and some others. The books of these series are apparently of an inferior class of literature, and are numbered consecutively; but the only thing to indicate that they are issued periodically is a notice upon the outside of the back cover, in small type, that they are weekly or semimonthly publications.

The considerations moving us to affirm the decree of the Court of Appeals in the case of Houghton v. Payne (just decided), 19 U.S. 88, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 590, apply with much greater persuasiveness to this case, and the decree dismissing the bill is, therefore, affirmed.

Mr. Justice Harlan and the CHIEF JUSTICE dissent in this case for the reasons stated in their dissenting opinions in Houghton v. Payne, 194 U.S. --, ante, 98, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 590, and Bates & G. Co. v. Payne, 194 U.S. --, post, 106, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 595.

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