WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY, Appellee, v.

MEAD DATA CENTRAL, INC., Appellant.

No. 85-5399.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 11, 1986.

Sept. 4, 1986.

1219

William E. Willis, New York City, for appellant.

Vance K. Opperman, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellee.

Before ARNOLD and FAGG, Circuit Judges, and OLIVER,^{Footnote *} Senior District Judge.

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

Mead Data Central, Inc. (MDC) appeals from a preliminary injunction issued by the District Court for the District of Minnesota ^{Footnote 1} in a copyright-infringement action brought by West Publishing Company (West). West's claim is based upon MDC's proposed introduction of "star pagination," keyed to West's case reports, into the LEXIS system of computer-assisted legal research.

For more than a century, West has been compiling and reporting opinions of state and federal courts. West publishes these opinions in a series of books known as the "National Reporter System." Before it publishes an opinion, West checks the accuracy of case and statutory citations in the opinion and adds parallel citations, pre-

pares headnotes and a synopsis for the opinion, and arranges the opinion in West's style and format. West then assigns its report of each opinion to one of the individual series in the National Reporter System, such as Federal Reporter, Second Series or Bankruptcy Reporter; this assignment is based on the court and/or the subject matter of the opinion. Next, West assigns the case to a volume in the series, further categorizes and arranges the cases within the volume, and prepares additional materials, such as indices and tables of cases, for each volume. Volumes and pages are numbered sequentially to facilitate precise reference to West reports; citing the proper volume number, series name, and page number communicates the exact location of a West report, or a portion thereof, within the National Reporter System. West represents that upon completion of each volume, it registers a copyright claim with the Register of Copyrights and receives a Certificate of Registration for the volume.

MDC developed, owns, and operates LEXIS, a computer-assisted, on-line legalresearch service first marketed in 1973. LEXIS, like West's National Reporter System, reports the decisions of state and federal courts. Since LEXIS's inception, MDC has included on the first computer screen of each LEXIS case report the citation to the first page of West's report of the opinion. West concedes that citation to the first page of its reports is a noninfringing "fair use" under 17 U.S.C. § 107, so these citations are not at issue here.

On June 24,1985, MDC announced that it planned to add "star pagination" to the text of opinions stored in the LEXIS database. This new service, named the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature, was to be available to LEXIS users by September or October of 1985. This feature would insert page numbers from West's National Reporter System publications into the body of LEXIS reports, providing "jump" or "pinpoint" citations to the location in West's reporter of the material viewed on LEXIS. Thus, with the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature, LEXIS users would be able to determine the West page number corresponding to the portion of an opinion viewed on LEXIS without ever physically referring to the West publication in which the opinion appears.

In response to MDC's announcement, West brought this action, claiming, inter alia, that the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature is an appropriation of West's comprehensive arrangement of case reports in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101-810. West sought, and was granted, a preliminary injunction. West Publishing Co. v. Mead Data Central, Inc., 616 F.Supp. 1571 (D.Minn.1985). The District Court held that there is a substantial likelihood that West's arrangements of case reports are protected by copyright law, that MDC's copying of West's pagination constitutes copyright infringement, and that MDC's star pagination is not a fair use of West's copyrighted works. 616 F.Supp. at 1575-1581. The Court further held that the balance of the harms to West and to MDC involved in granting or denying a preliminary injunction weighed in favor of granting an injunction, and that the public interest also favored preliminary injunctive relief. 616 F.Supp. 1581-1583. We affirm.

ANALYSIS Whether a preliminary injunction should issue turns upon four factors: (1) the probability that the movant will succeed on the merits; (2) the threat of irreparable harm to the movant should a preliminary injunction be denied; (3) the balance between this harm and the harm that granting the injunction will cause to the other parties litigant; and (4) the public interest. Dataphase Systems, Inc. v. C L Systems, Inc.  640 F.2d 109, 113 (8th Cir. 1981) (en bane). None of these factors by itself is determinative; rather, in each case the four factors must be balanced to determine whether they tilt toward or away from granting a preliminary injunction. Id. On appeal, we may not disturb the District Court's balancing of the equities absent a clearly erroneous factual determi-

nation, an error of law, or an abuse of discretion. O'Connor v. Peru State College,  728 F.2d 1001, 1002 (8th Cir.1984); Edudata Corp. v. Scientific Computers, Inc.,  746 F.2d 429, 430 (8th Cir.1984) (per curiam).

I.

MDC's principal contention here is that there is no likelihood that West will succeed on the merits of its copyright claim. MDC readily concedes that portions of West's National Reporter System publications that are not at issue here, such as headnotes prepared by West, merit copyright protection.^{Footnote 2} Yet, MDC maintains that any aspects of West's reporters affected by the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature are not copyrightable. The dominant chord of MDC's argument is that West claims copyright in mere page numbers. MDC adds that in any event, whether West claims copyright in its case arrangement or simply in its pagination, West's claim must fail because neither case arrangement nor pagination can ever qualify as the original work of an author. Even were this possible, MDC goes on, West's case arrangement and pagination do not in fact meet this standard. Finally, MDC contends that even were West's arrangement of cases protected by copyright, the proposed use of West's page numbers in LEXIS reports would not constitute infringement.

We do not agree with MDC that West's claim here is simply one for copyright in its page numbers. Instead, we concur in the District Court's conclusion that West's arrangement is a copyrightable aspect of its compilation of cases, that the pagination of West's volumes reflects and expresses West's arrangement, and that MDC's intended use of West's page numbers infringes West's copyright in the arrangement.

A. Copyright Protection The Copyright Act provides copyright protection for "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression." 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). The standard for "originality" is minimal. It is not necessary that the work be novel or unique, but only that the work have its origin with the author'that it be independently created. Hutchinson Telephone Co. v. Fronteer Directory Co.,  770 F.2d 128, 131 (8th Cir.1985). Little more is involved in this requirement than "a prohibition of actual copying." Alfred Bell & Co. v. Catalda Fine Arts,  191 F.2d 99, 102-103 (2d Cir.1951); see also M. Nimmer, 1 Nimmer on Copyright § 2.01 (1985).

To be the original work of an author, a work must be the product of some "creative intellectual or aesthetic labor." Goldstein v. California,  412 U.S. 546, 561, 93 S.Ct. 2303, 2312, 37 L.Ed.2d 163 (1973). However, "a very slight degree of such labor[,] ... almost any ingenuity in selection, combination or expression, no matter how crude, humble or obvious, will be sufficient" to make the work copyrightable. M. Nimmer, 1 Nimmer on Copyright, supra, § 1.08[C][l]; id., § 1.06. See Rockford Map Publishers v. Directory Service Company  768 F.2d 145, 148-149 (7th Cir.1985) (map based on Agriculture Department photographs and legal descriptions is copyrightable, no matter how quickly or with what little effort it is produced), cert, denied, ' U.S. -------, 106 S.Ct. 806, 88 L.Ed.2d 781 (1986); Universal Athletic Sales Co. v. Salkeld,  511 F.2d 904, 908 (3d Cir.) ("even a modicum of creativity may suffice for a work to be protected"), cert, denied, 423 U.S. 863, 96 S.Ct. 122, 46 L.Ed.2d 92 (1975).

MDC argues that case arrangement is per se uncopyrightable because it cannot meet these standards. However, it is apparent on the face of the Copyright Act that it is possible for an arrangement of pre-existing materials to be an independently produced work of intellectual creation. Section 103 of the Act, 17 U.S.C.

§ 103, establishes that "the subject matter of copyright ... includes compilations and derivative works." A "compilation" is defined in the Act as: a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.

17 U.S.C. § 101. An arrangement of opinions in a case reporter, no less than a compilation and arrangement of Shakespeare's sonnets, can qualify for copyright

We find support for this view in Callaghan v. Myers,  128 U.S. 617, 9 S.Ct. 177, 32 L.Ed. 547 (1888), which indicates that an original arrangement of opinions is copyrightable whenever it is the product of labor, talent, or judgment. The plaintiff in that case, Myers, held copyrights for several volumes of reports of the Supreme Court of Illinois. He had purchased these rights from the official reporter of that Court, who had prepared the volumes. In addition to the Court's opinions, the volumes contained a substantial amount of material original to the reporter, including headnotes, statements of facts, tables of cases, indices, and so on. Myers brought an infringement action against the publishers of a competing reporter of Illinois Supreme Court opinions who had copied from Myers's reports material created by the official reporter, as well as the arrangement and pagination of some volumes. The trial court found Myers's copyrights valid and infringed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the fact that Myers sought to protect material prepared by the official court reporter did not bar his claim, since no Illinois legislation forbade the reporter to obtain a copyright for matter that was the product of his intellectual labor. 128 U.S. at 646-647, 95 S.Ct. at 184.

As MDC points out, the treatment of case arrangement and pagination in Callaghan was not crucial to the Court's decision, since the defendants had also made use of other portions of Myers's volumes, such as headnotes and statements of facts. Nonetheless, we find Callaghan's discussion of the copyrightability of case arrangements instructive. The Supreme Court noted that while the reporter could claim no copyright in the opinions themselves, 128 U.S. at 649, 9 S.Ct. at 185, citing Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. 591, 668,  33 U.S. 591, 668, 8 L.Ed. 1055 (1834), he could copyright other portions of his reports. Mr. Justice Blatchford wrote that, in addition to headnotes, statements of facts, arguments of counsel, case tables, and indices, [s]uch work of the reporter, which may protection. be the lawful subject of copyright, comprehends ... the order of arrangement of the cases, the division of the reports into volumes, the numbering and paging of the volumes, the table of the cases cited in the opinions, (where such table is made,) and the subdivision of the index into appropriate, condensed titles, involving the distribution of the subjects of the various head-notes, and cross-references, where such exist. Callaghan, 128 U.S. at 649, 9 S.Ct. at 185 (emphasis ours).

Later in its opinion, however, when considering several volumes that Myers claimed the defendants had infringed by copying their case arrangement and pagination, the Court quoted with approval the opinion of the Circuit Court, which stated: Undoubtedly, in some cases, where are involved labor, talent, judgment, the classification and disposition of subjects in a book entitle it to a copyright. But the arrangement of law cases and the paging of the book may depend simply on the will of the printer, of the reporter, or publisher, or the order in which the cases have been decided, or upon other accidental circumstances. 128 U.S. at 662, 9 S.Ct. at 190, quoting Myers v. Callaghan, 20 Fed. 441, 442 (C.C. N.D.I11.1883). Evaluating the volumes at issue, the Circuit Court concluded that their case arrangement and pagination involved little labor; it therefore found the defendants' copying of the case arrange-

ment and pagination of Myers's volumes not an independent infringement, but a matter to be considered in connection with other similarities in the parties' reporters. Id. The teaching of Callaghan with respect to the issues before us does not come through with unmistakable clarity. But as we read it, Callaghan establishes at least that there is no per se rule excluding case arrangement from copyright protection, and that instead, in each case the arrangement must be evaluated in light of the originality and intellectual-creation standards.

For the proposition that case arrangement and pagination cannot, as a matter of law, meet originality and intellectual-creation requirements, MDC relies heavily upon Banks Law Publishing Co. v. Lawyer's Co-Operative Publishing Co., 169 Fed. 386 (2d Cir. 1909) (per curiam), appeal dismissed by stipulation, 223 U.S. 738, 32 S.Ct. 530, 56 L.Ed. 636 (1911). The plaintiff in Banks was the successor to the copyrights of an official reporter of the United States Supreme Court in published volumes of opinions compiled by the reporter. The defendant published a competing edition of the Supreme Court's decisions. The plaintiff claimed copyright infringement based on the defendant's reproduction of the plaintiffs arrangement of cases and on the defendant's star pagination to the plaintiffs reports. The trial court rejected the plaintiffs claim that its case arrangement and pagination merited copyright protection; the Second Circuit, in a per curiam opinion, reproduced the trial court's opinion in full, adopting the opinion as its own.

In our view, Banks does not support MDC's claim that case arrangement is uncopyrightable per se; we agree with the District Court that instead, the denial of copyright protection in Banks was based upon the official status of the reporter. See 616 F.Supp. at 1577. The plaintiff in Banks argued that its case arrangements were the product of sufficient intellectual labor to be copyrightable because the reporter's general, though not unalterable, approach in arranging cases was to begin each volume with what he considered to be the most important cases on hand and to group cases on the same subject matter together. The Banks court responded by noting that the official reporter was required by statute to prepare reports of Supreme Court decisions, gather them into volumes, and have them printed and published. To fulfill this duty, the court continued, the reporter must of necessity provide an orderly arrangement of cases and pagination for the volumes. The court concluded that "no valid copyright for these elements or details alone can be secured to the official reporter." 169 Fed. at 390. Although it acknowledged that "[t]he trend of some of the decisions and of the textwriters indicates that an arrangement of the material matter of a book may be the subject of a valid copyright," the court rejoined that, [A]ny principle upon which such cases are based is not thought applicable where the arrangement of the cases, though involving some merit, so obviously was necessary to produce the volumes required by the statute. Such labor, under the circumstances presented, like the decisions and opinions of the court, became the property of the public. Id. We conclude that the ultimate rationale for the Banks decision was that while under Callaghan the official reporter could copyright any material that was the product of his intellectual labor, because the reporter's statutory duties required case arrangement and pagination, these should not be considered the product of the reporter's intellectual labor.

MDC contends that Banks did not turn on the reporter's official status. It points out that the statute prescribing the reporter's duties in Banks did not specify how cases were to be arranged or how volumes of reports were to be paginated, so that the reporter exercised judgment and discretion in these matters. MDC concludes that Banks must therefore be read to hold broadly that arrangement and pagination are publishing details involving too little intellectual labor to be copyrightable. We

agree with MDC that the reporter in Banks exercised independent judgment. However, the Banks court dismissed the matters in which the reporter exercised discretion as things done "voluntarily and in evident compliance with the proper and faithful discharge of his official duties." 169 Fed. at 389-390. While we would be inclined to examine the official reporter's independent efforts in arrangement and pagination on their merits to see if they meet originality and intellectual-creation requirements, the Banks court did not do so because it was unwilling to look past the fact that they were done to meet the reporter's statutory obligations.

Several other reasons persuade us not to give Banks the full force for which MDC contends. If it involved the copyright claims of an official reporter, so too did Callaghan, and yet Callaghan does not seem so hostile to the very idea that case compilation, arrangement, and paging can be protected by copyright. To the extent that Banks diverges from Callaghan, we of course follow the Supreme Court. Banks, moreover, requires a greater degree of intellectual creativity than the trend of modern cases, see, e.g., Rockford Map, supra. And it was written at a time when the statute did not in express words declare that "compilations and derivative works," defined to include "the collection and assembling of preexisting materials," can be copyrighted. See Act of March 3, 1905, ch. 1432, Pub. L. No. 58-165, 33 Stat. 1000 (1905) (repealed 1909).

MDC argues, citing, e.g., Order of June 7, 1978, Minnesota Supreme Court (unreported), that West is the "official reporter" for some states, and that, therefore, even a narrow reading of Banks supports its position. We are inclined to think that the term "official reporter" in orders discontinuing, for example, the Minnesota Reports, and providing that the Northwestern Reporter should henceforth be the "official reporter" for the opinions of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, means something quite different from the title "official reporter" held by Messrs. Wheaton and Peters. We do not believe that West is employed by any State, with a salary and duties fixed by statute, and with the details of its work controlled by statute or rule. But even if it is, the facts of this case, as found on the present record by the District Court, convince us that West has used sufficient talent and industry in compiling and arranging cases to entitle it to copyright protection under the 1976 Act as construed by the more recent cases.

Having determined that there is no per se rule that case arrangements are not copyrightable, we turn to examine the District Court's findings that West's arrangements in fact meet originality and intellectual-creation requirements.

West publishes opinions not from just one court, but from every state and all the federal courts in the United States. As it collects these opinions, West separates the decisions of state courts from federal-court decisions. West further divides the federal opinions and the state opinions and then assigns them to the appropriate West reporter series. State court decisions are divided by geographic region and assigned to West's corresponding regional reporter. Federal decisions are first divided by the level of the court they come from into district court decisions, court of appeals decisions, and Supreme Court decisions; Court of Claims and military court decisions are also separated out. Before being assigned to a reporter, district court decisions are subdivided according to subject matter into bankruptcy decisions, federal rules decisions, and decisions on other topics. After an opinion is assigned to a reporter, it is assigned to a volume of the reporter and then arranged within the volume. Federal court of appeals decisions, for example, are arranged according to circuit within each volume of West's Federal Reporter, Second Series, though there may be more than one group of each circuit's opinions in each volume.

We conclude, as did the District Court, that the arrangement West produces through this process is the result of considerable labor, talent, and judgment.

As discussed above, supra pp. 1223-1224, to meet intellectual-creation requirements a work need only be the product of a modicum of intellectual labor; West's case arrangements easily meet this standard. Further, since there is no allegation that West copies its case arrangements from some other source, the requirement of originality poses no obstacle to copyrighting the arrangements. In the end, MDC's position must stand or fall on its insistence that all West seeks to protect is numbers on pages. If this is a correct characterization, MDC wins: two always comes after one, and no one can copyright the mere sequence of Arabic numbers. As MDC points out, the specific goal of this suit is to protect some of West's page numbers, those occurring within the body of individual court opinions. But protection for the numbers is not sought for their own sake. It is sought, rather, because access to these particular numbers'the "jump cites"' would give users of LEXIS a large part of what West has spent so much labor and industry in compiling, and would pro tanto reduce anyone's need to buy West's books. The key to this case, then, is not whether numbers are copyrightable, but whether the copyright on the books as a whole is infringed by the unauthorized appropriation of these particular numbers. On the record before us (and subject to reconsideration if materially new evidence comes in at the plenary trial on the merits), the District Court's findings of fact relevant to this issue are supportable. We therefore hold (again subject to reexamination after the record has closed) that West's case arrangements, an important part of which is internal page citations, are original works of authorship entitled to copyright protection.

B. Infringement We further hold (with a similar qualification) that MDC's proposed use of West page numbers will infringe West's copyright in the arrangement. The LEXIS Star Pagination Feature, when used in conjunction with another LEXIS feature called "LEXSEE," will permit LEXIS users to view the arrangement of cases in every volume of West's National Reporter System. LEXSEE enables the LEXIS user to have his or her terminal display a case by "inputting" the citation to the first page of West's report of the case. With the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature, a LEXIS user could summon up the first case in a West Volume, page through it until he or she reaches the end of the case, and discern from the "jump cite" for the final page of the case the citation for the first page of the next case in the volume. The LEXIS user could then use LEXSEE to call up the next case. By repeating this procedure, the LEXIS user would be able to page through each succeeding case in the West reporter. MDC conceded at oral argument that this operation would be possible, but argued that LEXIS users would be unlikely to perform it because of the cost involved in doing repeated LEXSEE searches. However, MDC has cited no authority, nor do we see any persuasive argument, for the proposition that because consumers may find an infringing work uneconomical, the work is not an infringement. An author's rights in a copyrighted work protect the author not only against infringing works less expensive than the original, but against more expensive infringements as well. Further, though this use of LEXIS may presently be uneconomical, changes in technology and other market conditions could well alter the situation.

Even if the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature did not make it possible to use LEXIS to page through cases as they are arranged in West volumes, we would still hold that MDC's use of West's page numbers infringes West's copyright in the arrangement. Jump cites to West volumes within a case on LEXIS are infringing because they enable LEXIS users to discern the precise location in West's arrangement of the portion of the opinion being viewed. MDC contends that these page numbers communicate nothing about West's arrangement. This might be true if MDC proposed to use the numbers in some way unconnected to their position in West's re-

porters, for example by simply printing a list of the numbers. However, MDC understandably has no interest in making such a use of the numbers; instead, it plans to replicate on LEXIS every page break in West's volumes and to note the corresponding West page number. Communication to LEXIS users of the location in West's arrangement of specific portions of text is precisely what the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature is designed to do.

With MDC's star pagination, consumers would no longer need to purchase West's reporters to get every aspect of West's arrangement. Since knowledge of the location of opinions and parts of opinions within West's arrangement is a large part of the reason one would purchase West's volumes, the LEXIS star pagination feature would adversely affect West's market position. "[A] use that supplants any part of the normal market for a copyrighted work would ordinarily be considered an infringement." S.Rep. No. 473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 65 (1975), quoted in Harper & Row Publishers v. Nation Enterprises, -' U.S. ------, 105 S.Ct. 2218, 2235, 85 L.Ed.2d 588 (1985).

MDC asserts that enjoining its use of West page numbers is tantamount to giving West a copyright in the Arabic numbering system. West cannot, MDC argues, claim that its use of the numbering system is an original work of authorship. It is true that some uses of a numbering system cannot meet originality requirements for copyright. See Toro Co. v. R & R Products Co.,  787 F.2d 1208 (8th Cir.1986) (arbitrary assignment of random numbers to replacement parts did not qualify for copyright protection). However, as already noted, the copyright we recognize here is in West's arrangement, not in its numbering system; MDC's use of West's page numbers is problematic because it infringes West's copyrighted arrangement, not because the numbers themselves are copyrighted.

MDC also argues that the LEXIS Star Pagination Feature does not infringe West's copyright because its citations to page numbers in West reporters are merely statements of pure fact. The flaw in this argument is that it does not distinguish between isolated use of the factual aspects of a compilation or arrangement and wholesale appropriation of the arrangement. "Isolated instances of minor infringements, when multiplied many times, become in the aggregate a major inroad on copyright that must be prevented." S.Rep. No. 473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 65 (1975), quoted in Harper & Row, 105 S.Ct. at 2235. The names, addresses, and phone numbers in a telephone directory are "facts"; though isolated use of these facts is not copyright infringement, copying each and every listing is an infringement. See Hutchinson Telephone v. Fronteer Directory,  770 F.2d 128 (8th Cir.1985). Similarly, MDC's wholesale appropriation of West's arrangement and pagination for a competitive, commercial purpose is an infringement.^{Footnote 3}

We hold that West's arrangement of cases in its National Reporter System publications is entitled to copyright protection and that the LEXIS Star Pagination feature infringes West's copyright in the arrangement. On the basis of the present record, it is probable that West will succeed on the merits at trial.

II.

MDC also contends that the District Court did not accurately assess and weigh the three remaining Dataphase factors: the threat of irreparable harm to West, the

relative harm to MDC, and the public inter- of equities in this case favors issuing a est. We disagree.

In copyright infringement cases, the general rule is that a showing of a prima facie case raises a presumption of irreparable harm. Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp.,  714 F.2d 1240, 1254 (3d Cir.1983), cert, dismissed, 464 U.S. 1033,104 S.Ct. 690, 79 L.Ed.2d 158 (1984). West has made a strong claim for copyright infringement and is therefore entitled to this presumption. Furthermore, MDC's intended use of West's page numbers may significantly affect demand for West's volumes; this further supports West's claim of irreparable injury. See Wainwright Securities, Inc. v. Wall Street Transcript Corp.,  558 F.2d 91, 94 (2d Cir. 1977), cert, denied, 434 U.S. 1014, 98 S.Ct. 730, 54 L.Ed.2d 759 (1978). On the other hand, the harm which MDC claims it will suffer is principally loss of the market share and revenues it would garner from use of West's page numbers. Yet, West has demonstrated that it will probably succeed on its claim that MDC's use of West's page numbers is a copyright infringement.

Finally, the public interest favors issuing a preliminary injunction. While MDC argues that there is a public interest in free access to the law embodied in West's reporters, we note that West's works are not the only reports of judicial opinions available'MDC itself reports the decisions on LEXIS. More importantly, MDC's argument ignores the purpose of affording authors a monopoly in their copyrightable material; " '[i]f every volume that was in the public interest could be pirated away by a competing publisher, ... the public [soon] would have nothing worth reading.'" Harper & Row, 105 S.Ct. at 2230, quoting Sobel, Copyright and the First Amendment: A Gathering Storm?, 19 ASCAP Copyright Law Symposium 43, 78 (1971).

We conclude that the District Court correctly assessed the various Dataphase factors and that it did not abuse its discretion in determining that the balance preliminary injunction.

CONCLUSION West has shown that it will probably succeed on the merits of its claim at trial; West's case arrangements are entitled to copyright protection and MDC's intended use of West page numbers would infringe West's copyright in its arrangements. The District Court correctly balanced this factor with the threat of irreparable harm to West, the relative harm to MDC, and the public interest to determine that West should be granted a preliminary injunction. Accordingly, the decision of the District Court will be affirmed.

We add a word about the procedural posture of this case. It comes to us on appeal from an order granting a preliminary injunction. The case has yet to be tried. We trust it will be tried soon. (Indeed, so far as any requirements of law are concerned, it could have been tried already: the pendency of an interlocutory appeal from an order granting or denying a preliminary injunction does not wholly divest the District Court of jurisdiction over the entire case.) When it is tried, and when judgment is entered, another appeal can be filed. At that time it will be our duty to examine anew, on the basis of the full record, the issues discussed in this opinion. As we have observed before, e.g., Independent Fed'n of Flight Attendants v. Trans World Airlines,  655 F.2d 155, 159 (8th Cir.1981), "[t]he District Court's findings, and our observations as to the governing law made in this opinion, are tentative and provisional, in the sense that different findings or conclusions might be warranted after a trial on the merits." For this reason, the attention of the district courts in this Circuit is called to Fed. R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2), under which, in appropriate cases, those courts have discretion to combine the hearing on a motion for preliminary injunction with the trial on the merits. This procedure is a good one, and we wish to encourage it. In the present case, for example, we got the definite im-

pression at oral argument that most of the evidence on both sides had already been put in. If this is true, the case could have been tried with little additional effort, and the result could have been one appeal instead of two, with a final resolution of the case instead of a provisional one. Affirmed.

OLIVER, Senior District Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part. This case pends on an interlocutory appeal noticed pursuant to Section 1292(a)(l) of Title 28, U.S.C., from a modified order of the district court which "preliminarily enjoined [MDC] from displaying, referencing or including the page number of any and all publications within plaintiffs National Reporter System * * * published during the period from January 2, 1910 to the present within or in relation to the text of court opinions contained in the LEXIS database." Addendum at 25a-26a.* I concur in what the majority stated in regard to the procedural posture of the case and its discussion of Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2). At 1229. It is my view, however, that the majority's analysis of this case exceeds the limited scope of appellate review provided by a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal. I therefore dissent because I do not believe, in light of the meager record before the district court, that the majority's analysis is consistent with the applicable law. It is my view that our panel should follow the lead of the First Circuit as stated in Building Officials & Code Adm. v. Code Tech, Inc.,  628 F.2d 730 (1st Cir.1980), in which a not dissimilar question was presented on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal.

That case, as does this case, involved the application of principles first enunciated in Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834), and later applied in Banks v. Manchester,  128 U.S. 244, 9 S.Ct. 36, 32 L.Ed.

425 (1888), and Callaghan v. Myers,  128 U.S. 617, 9 S.Ct. 177, 32 L.Ed. 547 (1888).

The First Circuit reversed the district court's grant of a preliminary injunction and remanded the case for a trial on the merits without making any definitive ruling on the merits of legal issues presented on the Section 1292(a)(l) appeal that pended in that court.^{Footnote 2}

I.

A.

MDC, for reasons I find difficult to understand, invoked the appellate jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(l). MDC argued in the district court that the granting of a preliminary injunction restraining MDC from adding the "star pagination" feature "would give West the time it would need to do the considerable work necessary to add its own pagination feature to Westlaw." (App. 103).^{Footnote 3}

MDC obviously invited further delay that would permit West to play catch-up when it

elected to notice a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal in this case. Certainly MDC was not required to notice such an appeal. See Scarrella v. Midwest Federal Savings & Loan,  536 F.2d 1207, 1209 (8th Cir.1976), ("[a] party is not required to take an interlocutory appeal authorized by statute").

4 MDC's citation and reliance on O'Connor v. Peru State College,  728 F.2d 1001, 1002 (8th Cir.1984), see page 24 of MDC brief, establishes that it knew that the scope of appellate review on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal from an "interlocutory order" is necessarily more narrow than the scope of appellate review of a "final decision" on an appeal taken pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. O'Connor and Edudata Corp v. Scientific Computers, Inc.,  746 F.2d 429, 430 (8th Cir.1984) (per curiam), both cited in the majority opinion (Supra, at 1222-23), are but two recent Eighth Circuit cases that recognize the established Eighth Circuit rule in regard to the limited scope of appellate review on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal. ^{Footnote 5}

The majority opinion recognized that the scope of appellate review on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal is limited and circumscribed. For on page 1229 of the opinion it quoted that portion of Independent Fed'n of Flight Attendants v. Trans World Airlines,  655 F.2d 155, 159 (8th Cir.1981), which concluded that "[t]he District Court's findings, and our observations as to the governing law made in this opinion, are tentative and provisional, in the sense that different findings or conclusions might be warranted after a trial on the merits." ^{Footnote 6}

The reason the scope of appellate review on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal is circumscribed is because the grant of a preliminary injunction by a district court is reviewed solely under an abuse of discretion standard. Olin Water Services v. Midland Research Lab.,  774 F.2d 303, 307 (8th Cir.1985), the most recent Eighth Circuit case on that point, concluded that: Our sole task in reviewing an order of the district court granting a preliminary injunction is to determine whether the court abused its discretion. Ferry-Morse Seed Co. v. Food Corn, Inc.,  729 F.2d 589, 592 (8th Cir.1984); Data-phase Systems, Inc. v. C L Systems, Inc., 640 P.2d 109, 114 & n. 8 (8th Cir.1981) (en bane); accord University of Texas v. Camenisch,  451 U.S. 390, 393, 101 S.Ct. 1830, 1832-33, 68 L.Ed.2d 175 (1981). (Empha

Any possible doubt about the limited scope of review on a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal, in my view, was resolved by University of Texas v. Camenisch, supra,  451 U.S. 390, 101 S.Ct. 1830, 68 L.Ed.2d 175 (1981). That case held that "the issue before the Court of Appeals [on an appeal from an order granting a preliminary injunction] was * * * whether the District Court had abused its discretion in issuing a preliminary injunction." ^{Footnote 7}

Id. 451 U.S. at 393, 101 S.Ct. at 1832. While I concur in the majority's recognition of the established Eighth Circuit rule, I am not able to join the majority opinion because that opinion exceeds the limited scope of appellate review accorded by a Section 1292(a)(l) appeal. ^{Footnote 8}

The majority opinion, as I read it, states much more than a tentative view of the merits of this case.

B. I concur with what the majority stated in its final paragraph in regard to the utilization of Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2). I quite agree that if the hearing on West's application for a preliminary injunction had been consolidated with an advanced trial on the sis added). merits, that the entire case could have been tried with little additional effort, with the result of having one rather than two appeals. This case, in my view, is precisely the type of case in which Rule 65(a)(2) should have been used. For it is reasonably certain that once this case is tried on the merits, the losing party will notice a second appeal of right under Section 1291. ^{Footnote 9}

II.

A.

Neither the district court nor the majority discussed any part of the record before the district court to support their respective conclusions that West, on the merits, will probably succeed in proving as matters of fact, that (1) West's arrangement of the cases in all of its publications since January 8, 1910 to the present may be subject to copyright; (2) that West's pagination of all those publications is an important part of such an arrangement and that, as such, is also subject to copyright; and (3) that MDC's intended use of star pagination may be said to constitute an infringement of West's copyright of all its post-January 2, 1910 publications.

Although West relied on Hutchinson Telephone Co. v. Fronteer Directory Co.,  770 F.2d 128 (8th Cir.1985) (Tr. 11), in the district court, that court did not make any findings of fact or indicate in any way that it believed that the publication of a law report could be said to be comparable to the publication of a telephone directory.

The majority cited and relied on Hutchinson, both in regard to its discussion of "copyright protection," at 1223, and in discussion of "infringement," at 1227 and 1228. The majority, however, like the district court, did not make any reference to the record to support its ultimate concurrence with "the District Court's conclusion that West's arrangement is a copyrightable aspect of its compilation of cases, that the pagination of West's volumes reflects and expresses West's arrangement, and that MDC's intended use of West's page numbers infringes West's copyright in the arrangement." Supra at 1223.

I find nothing in the record to support the requisite findings of fact upon which both the district court's and the majority's conclusions of law are based. This is not a case, in my judgment, that permits an application of the clearly erroneous standard of Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a) because the district court did not make any findings of fact in regard to the relevant factual circumstances of this case. Further, as a member of the panel that decided Hutchinson, I am satisfied that case should be distinguished from this case on much the same grounds it was recently distinguished in Toro Co. v. R & R Products Co.,  787 F.2d 1208, 1213 (8th Cir.1986).

West's arrangement of cases, however that arrangement may be made, is contained in each volume of its various publications. West has no general copyright on its "National Reporter System"; each separate volume published by West carries its own individual copyright. Most, but not all, of the exceedingly few Certificates of Copyright Registration in the record establish that West has recognized that it may not obtain a copyright on the major part of what it published in a particular volume of any one of those law reports. ^{Footnote 10}

The record shows, for example, that although West claimed authorship of the "entire work" encompassed in Volume 753 F.2d, West's Certificate of Registration Form TX l-£07-203 (Exh. 3, A63) did not make any claim of copyright for the page numbers that the majority opinion concluded was "an important part" of the whole of such a Volume. ^{Footnote 11}

One of the questions on the copyright registration form required West to "[g]ive a brief, general statement of the material that has been added to this work and in which copyright is claimed"

(A64). West's answer stated "[c]ompilation of previously published case reports including but not limited to opinions, synopses, syllabi or case law paragraphs, key number classifications, tables and index digest, with revisions and additions." ^{Footnote 12} (A64).

West stated on Form TX 1-607-203 that the "Title of the Work" was "Federal Reporter. Second Series. Volume 753 F.2d." The title to a law report is obviously a very important part of the whole of such a volume, however the published court opinions may be arranged. ^{Footnote 13}

Yet, it is beyond dispute, I believe, that the title to a volume of law reports, certainly a most important part of the whole volume, simply is not subject to copyright. See 1 Nimmer on Copyright "Titles," § 2.16, p. 2-186 and the cases cited therein, including Duff v. The Kansas City Star,  299 F.2d 320 (8th Cir.1962).

The fact that the sequential numbering of the pages of any volume, including a volume of law reports, is an important part of the volume, does not support a finding of fact that such a part of the whole of a particular volume of West's publications is subject to copyright. Nor, in my judgment, does such a fact support a finding of fact that West's arrangement of cases is subject to copyright. All parts of a copyrighted volume may not be automatically considered a subject to copyright simply because a publisher claims a copyright on the whole volume.

B.

Nor does the record, as I read it, support any finding of fact upon which the majority could base its conclusion that "the LEXIS Star Pagination feature infringes West's u copyright in the arrangement." At 1228. I hold that view even if it is assumed that the majority's assumption that West's pagination, as an "important part" of a West publication, is entitled to copyright may be valid. For I do not believe that anything in the sketchy record in this case can support a factual finding that MDC's intended star pagination of West's published court opinions would in any way infringe West's "arrangement of cases." The record, as I read it, merely establishes that MDC only intends to add star pagination to the court opinions contained in its LEXIS data base. MDC, as I understand the record, does not intend to make, nor has it in fact made any use of West's "synopses, syllabi or case law paragraphs, key number classifications, tables and index digest, with revisions and additions" for which West claimed in its Certificates of Copyright Registration. The record, as I read it, cannot be said to support a finding of fact that MDC intends in any way to duplicate or reproduce West's "arrangement of cases," whatever those arrangements may be.

Thus, on the district court's record, the ultimate question presented on this Section 1292(a)(l) appeal is reduced to whether,

under the applicable law, MDC's intended use of West's page numbers, standing alone, may be said to infringe some copyright to which West may be entitled under factual circumstances yet to be established on a trial of the merits of this case. It cannot be said that it is probable that West will succeed on the merits unless it can also be said that West will be able to establish that its page numbers are entitled to copyright; one simply cannot infringe a non-existent copyright. ^{Footnote 15}

The probability of whether West will succeed on the merits must, in my judgment, be viewed in light of the fact that law book publishers in the United States have long and traditionally used star pagination in their publication of court opinions which have been taken verbatim from earlier published and copyrighted works of both official and unofficial court reporters. ^{Footnote 16}

not believe that the record in this case can be said to support a Dataphase conclusion that West will probably succeed on the merits when that record can be said only to support a finding of fact that MDC intends to do no more than what other law book publishers have been doing for a long, long period of time.

C.

Both the district court and the majority referred to the works of Shakespeare to support the granting of the preliminary injunction in this case. ^{Footnote 17}

Whether a new "compilation" of Shakespeare's work may, in fact, be subject to copyright as an original work of authorship does not answer the question of whether West's "page numbers and its arrangement are necessarily within the scope of copyright protection," as the district court concluded. 616 F.Supp. at 1577. Neither the district court nor the majority cite any cases which suggest that the page numbers of a new compilation of any work of Shakespeare must be considered a subject of copyright. Nor is any authority cited to support the notion that the citation of the page numbers in a copyrighted compilation of Shakespeare's work would somehow infringe an earlier publication of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Current literary practice suggests that such page citations may not be said to I do constitute an infringement. ^{Footnote 18}

A judicial opinion cannot, under Wheaton v. Peters be considered a subject of copyright. Nor, in my view, may a compilation of judicial opinions be considered a subject of copyright unless such a work is "formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are ^{Footnote *} * * arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." 17 U.S.C. § 101. (Emphasis added). ^{Footnote 19}

While there may be some interesting copyright questions presented in regard to a compilation of Shakespeare's work, ^{Footnote 20} not believe that the