Wheaton v. Peters

Wheaton v. Peters
Decided March 19, 1834
Full case nameHenry Wheaton and Robert Donaldson, Appellants
v.
Richard Peters and John Grigg
Citations33 U.S. 591 (more)
8 Pet. 591; 8 L. Ed. 1055; 1834 U.S. LEXIS 619
Holding
There is no common law copyright after a work's publication, and court reporters cannot hold copyrights on the cases compiled in the course of their work.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Marshall
Associate Justices
William Johnson · Gabriel Duvall
Joseph Story · Smith Thompson
John McLean · Henry Baldwin
Case opinions
MajorityMcLean, joined by Marshall, Johnson, Duvall, Story
DissentThompson
DissentBaldwin

Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834), was the first United States Supreme Court ruling on copyright. The case upheld the power of Congress to make a grant of copyright protection subject to conditions and rejected the doctrine of a common law copyright in published works. The Court also declared that there could be no copyright in the Court's own judicial decisions.[1]

  1. ^ Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834).