HarperCollins and Open Road were back in court last week. According to court filings, the parties have apparently not worked out a final resolution to their copyright dispute over Open Road’s e-book edition of Jean Craighead George’s 1973 bestselling children’s book Julie of the Wolves.
With no settlement reached, a briefing schedule was ordered by the court. Under the order, HarperCollins is set to file its opening brief by May 23; Open Road is to file its opposition brief no later than June 20; and HarperCollins will file a reply brief no later than July 3.
The appearance comes after judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled last month that Open Road infringed HarperCollins’s copyright in publishing its e-book edition. Buchwald held that a clause, inserted by agent Curtis Brown in the 1971 contract, which encompassed digital technologies “now known or hereafter invented” was “sufficiently broad to draw within its ambit e-book publication."
