Does GATT apply to the RWS Tarot or the PTK?
A. Let’s assume a date of publication 1910 for both works. If they were published with a copyright notice this would have given them a copyright term of 28 years, that is, until 1938). If they were renewed in the 28th year of publication at the US copyright office, this would have given them an additional 47 years of protection. Since a number of parties base their copyright claims on the RWS and PTK having a full US term of copyright, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s the case. That would mean that the US copyright expired in 1985, at the latest. In my opinion, this means that the US copyright expired in 1985, considerably prior to January 1, 1996 (see number 3, above, in bold). Hence the GATT restoral does not apply to the RWS or the PKT. One possible exception would be if there was no renewal; as a matter of fact, this would indicate that a GATT restoral would technically be in force. However, in this case, the copyright would be on shaky ground because
