Is An Expert Certificate Protectable By Copyright In The Us?

All this speculating is silly. Why not just ask the PF and PSE (and the others) to participate in a cross-agency cert database? If the effort is a decently-funded and serious effort, they might not object. . .they might even assist. It would be good for their business anyway.

I'm always surprised that nobody from the PF or PSE comments on these threads where they are discussed. They must see these threads.

I am not sure that a cross-agency database is the issue but rather that PSE in particular has no database that is searchable by other than specific certification number and certificate information that is returned in response to a search does not reference prior and subsequent certificates for the same item. The PF does have a database that is searchable in many ways including Scott number and that contains prior and subsequent certification data.

Philazilla - About a week ago, I called the PSE and talked to Caj Brejtfus (CFO). It wasn't the first conversation that I've had with him about the value a searchable database. I have tried several times to make all sorts of business arguments as to why it would be good for both the hobby and for the PSE. His previous response has been that a search capability would be difficult to create for technical reasons, but that it was on their wish list of things to accomplish. I told them at that time that if the issue was the expense of programming expertise that would have to be brought in to extract the data from their existing databases, I could rather easily rebuild it for them by scraping the data from their cert verification webpage. I don't think they ever really took me seriously.
On my last call, Caj added that one of PSE's major concerns is that having a searchable database will result in a deluge of calls asking them to explain why a stamp was graded as it was, and why, when in the collector's view a stamp they submitted is just as nice, it didn't receive the same grade. They don't have enough resources to handle this sort of thing, and it could disrupt their business. I suppose that it is a legitimate fear, but I doubt very much that there would be as anywhere near as many calls as they imagine. On the contrary, collectors might begin to better appreciate the range of conditions that are possible within the same grade. Eventually we might begin to see sales prices more evenly distributed instead of the clustering we see now around SMQ values.

As an update, the US Copyright Office refused registration to the example I submitted, stating:


The effect of this particular registration decision would be to limit US copyright protection to the images and graphics in the certificate, which is obviously not what an expertizer would want in a registration. The decision may also be useful for people involved in copying and distributing certificates of others in assessing risk.

cjpalermo - it looks like you got your answer. If you WANTED your cert to be copyrighted, perhaps a paragraph could be added to the form, of course in your own words, like:

"Philatelligence is a philatelic expertization company founded in order to provide peace of mind for the discriminating stamp collector. We bring years of experience, so that you don't have to. Open up the world of stamps with confidence."

Maybe make it longer, so it would "contain enough original literary authorship to support a claim to copyright on text." Maybe even wrap it around the outside of the cert, like a border, so it melts into the background, but still supports the letter of the law wrt copyrighting. But no one else has done that (or have they?).

So, does your result mean that the other cert organizations have no claim against their certs being photographed or opinions quoted?

"I would argue that allowing sellers of a stamp to display the stamp's certificate at will is a key component of the expertizers business model given that one of the primary reasons for certificates is to validate a stamp's value. Charging a fee to display a certificate, validate a certificate in an expertizer's database or limiting use to permission based would erode the usefulness and value of the certificate."

Nailed it.

cjpalermo1964 - Thanks so much for all your efforts in trying to resolve some of the issues regarding copyright protection for expertizing certificates. Fortunately, the PSE has voluntarily chosen to allow their images and certificates be displayed without charge, and there will soon be a searchable database for PSE certificates available, from 2010 to the present, at stampsmarter.com.

The purpose of this submission was to stay neutral and submit a certificate similar to thousands that real expertizers have issued, with the minimal description that they often use, without trying to game the result with added language.


Sorry, I can't comment on that, because people here could rely on it as legal advice. Those organizations, or people doing databases of certs, need to get individualized advice.