Royce Mathew doesn't have a chance in hell of winning anything. (Unless he can get a change of venue to an alternate universe.)
According to the online search at the Library of Congress, Royce Mathew has registered 19 items. (See below.) 13 items are related to the "Pirates of the Caribbean", or "SNPM" ("Super Natural Pirate Movie"). The other 6 items are unrelated. In Royce Mathew's complaint this claim is made: (Page 10 Point 42) "From 1991 through early 1995, Plaintiff personally and though others provided copies of his materials, including SNPM 2nd Level Structural Blueprint, SNPM Original Drawing Collection and SNPM Draft #1 to Defendants. These materials were provided to a variety of employees and agents of Defendants, on multiple occasions, over a period of years." Here's the HUGE credibility problem. Royce Mathew registered the 6 unrelated items with the Library of Congress within the time frame of March 5, 1990 until February 18, 1993. This establishes the fact that Royce Mathew understood the concept of registering a copyright during the same period he claims he was shopping his SNPM project.
So why didn't he register any part of the POC/SNPM materials (total 13 items) until December 2, 2003, December 12, 2003, July 21, 2005 and July 29, 2005 (10 items)? These tardy registrations occurred at least nine years after they were allegedly created for 2 items and more than a decade later for the remaining 11 items. None of these of Royce Mathew's registrations (relating to the POC/SNPM items) occurred until after the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl". And that just doesn't pass the smell test.
[nq:1]Royce Mathew doesn't have a chance in **** of winning anything. (Unless he can get a change of venue to ... SNPM original drawing collection. Claimant: acRoyce Mathew , 1962- Created: 1980 Registered: 29Jul05 Special Codes: 5/S[/nq] Paulo, Great detective work! Doctor Jingy, I concur. Scott
[nq:1]None of these of Royce Mathew's registrations (relating to the POC/SNPM items) occurred until after the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".[/nq] But as long as it's registered before the trial, it's legally relevant.
His lawyer likely advised him to do it. He probably didn't have much of a clue about copyrighting movie stuff. Most people d