§ 225.1 - General practices.

§ 225.1 General practices.

(a) Standard discovery practice. Except as otherwise provided in this section, discovery in proceedings before the Copyright Claims Board (Board) shall be limited to the methods set forth in this part and shall use the standard forms provided on the Board's website. Discovery responses and documents shall be served on the other parties in accordance with § 222.5(e) of this subchapter and shall not be filed with the Board unless as part of written testimony or as needed in support of other filings.

(1) Certifications. All discovery material exchanged among the parties must include a certification by the party submitting such material.

(i) For responses to interrogatories or any requests for admission permitted by the Board, the certification shall affirm that the responses are accurate and truthful to the best of the submitting party's knowledge.

(ii) For the production of documents, the certification shall affirm that the produced documents are genuine and unaltered to the best of the producing party's knowledge.

(2) Form of requests to Board. Requests to the Board related to discovery may be raised to the Board during a conference or by written request, as set forth in this part.

(3) Reasonable investigation. Parties shall make a reasonable investigation under the circumstances to adequately respond to discovery requests.

(b) Timing of discovery. The exchange of discovery material shall take place at the times and within the deadlines specified by the scheduling order. The Board may modify the discovery deadlines set forth in the scheduling order at the request of any party upon a showing of good cause or on its own initiative. Such requests may be made orally during a conference with the Board or by written request. Written requests for modification of a discovery deadline and any responses thereto shall follow the procedures set forth in § 220.5(a)(1) of this subchapter.

(c) Conferences. The Board shall hold a pre-discovery conference and a post-discovery conference, as set forth in § 222.11(b) of this subchapter. The Board may hold additional conferences to manage discovery and resolve any disputes, at its own election or at the request of any party. Requests for a discovery conference not involving a dispute and any responses thereto shall follow the procedures set forth in § 220.5(a)(1) of this subchapter. Requests for a discovery conference involving a dispute and any responses thereto shall follow the procedures set forth in § 220.5(a)(2). Such conferences may be held by one or more Copyright Claims Officers. Conferences shall be held virtually.

(d) Documents. As used in this part, the term “document” shall refer to any tangible piece of information - including writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, and other data or data compilations - stored in any medium from which information can be obtained either directly or, if necessary, after translation by the responding party into a reasonably usable form, whether in written or electronic form, an object, or otherwise. The Board shall read this definition broadly so that there is a comprehensive production of materials by each side needed to fairly decide matters before the Board, so long as that production can be easily accomplished by a layperson.

[87 FR 30082, May 17, 2022; 87 FR 36061, June 15, 2022]