Copyright Office Legal Battle to Run Into At Least July, New Scheduling Order Shows

Under a newly confirmed schedule, the lawsuit filed by former Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter is expected to run into at least July 2025. Photo Credit: Maddi Bazzocco

One scheduling sub-dispute later, the legal battle for Copyright Office control is seemingly set to proceed into at least July.

That’s according to a new preliminary injunction scheduling order from the presiding judge, who signed off on most of the deadlines proposed by the involved parties. As many know, those parties – reinstatement-minded former USCO head Shira Perlmutter on one hand and Trump administration officials on the other – spent a good bit of May clashing over the case’s timetable.

To be sure, during May’s final week and change, Perlmutter filed the complaint, the government fired back, and the former Register of Copyrights sought a restraining order as well as summary judgement.

Now, with the dust having largely settled from the restraining order and summary judgement pushes, the heretofore breakneck proceedings are easing into a more measured pace.

In response to a related conference order, the litigants on June 4th requested a June 10th deadline for Perlmutter’s preliminary injunction motion. From there, the defendants would have until the 24th to respond, followed by a July 1st cutoff for Perlmutter’s reply in support of the original motion.

As initially mentioned, Judge Timothy J. Kelly just recently approved these scheduling particulars.

Notably, with regard to the preliminary injunction itself, both sides had also asked the court to “schedule a hearing at its convenience for the week of July 7 or July 14-16.” Here, however, Judge Kelly only wrote that he would “determine whether a hearing is necessary at a later time.”

In any event, the high-stakes suit doesn’t appear to be trending towards an immediate resolution; it’ll be worth charting the above-described motion and responses throughout June.

And in the bigger picture, as explored in detail by DMN Pro, there’s quite a lot riding on the Copyright Office’s future from an IP policy perspective. While nothing is set in stone, the available evidence suggests Perlmutter’s reinstatement might be unlikely.

But if their past comments are any indication, the acting Copyright Office and Library of Congress replacements aren’t exactly Big Tech advocates. The point is certainly important when it comes to pressing AI training questions.

So is the possibility that the acting appointees could make way for permanent successors following the Perlmutter action’s resolution. To state the obvious, the music space, the wider entertainment sector, and the tech world alike have an interest in who takes the reins.

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