Background
In 1948, Fox obtained the exclusive rights to create a television series called Crusade in Europe, based on the 1948 book, Crusade in Europe written by Dwight D. Eisenhower and published by Doubleday. The 26-episode series showed World War II film footage from the US military and other sources, with a voice soundtrack based on a narration of the book. In 1975, Doubleday renewed the copyright on the book. Fox, however, did not renew the copyright on the TV series, so the show entered the public domain in 1977.
In 1988, Fox reacquired the television rights to the book, and licensed to other companies the right to distribute Crusade in Europe on video. Then in 1995, Dastar purchased Betacam videotapes of the original TV series, copied the tapes, edited them to about half the original length, created new packaging, and sold the TV series as World War II Campaigns in Europe. The new videotapes and advertising mentioned Dastar and its employees as the producers, and did not mention the original Crusade in Europe book, TV series, or producers.
Fox sued in 1998, claiming that Dastar had infringed the copyright to the Crusade in Europe book, and that, under the Lanham Act, it had illegally done a "reverse passing off", passing off the work of others as its own work. The district court found for Fox and awarded it double the profits that Dastar had made. The Court of Appeals reversed the copyright claim and sent it back to the district court on remand, but upheld the "reverse passing off"/Lanham Act ruling, and affirmed the award of double the profits.
Read more about this topic: Dastar Corp. V. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
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