The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finally has chosen sides in a slowly developing dispute over a technical but important issue - namely, whether a copyright application or completed registration is needed to file suit for copyright infringement. In Cosmetic Ideas Inc. v. IAC/InteractiveCorp, 2010 DJDAR 7635 (9th Cir. May 25, 2010), it ruled that filing a copyright application alone was enough to give a plaintiff access to federal courts. The 9th Circuit's decision widens an already significant circuit split on exactly what a copyright plaintiff needs to do to satisfy the statutory prerequisites for filing suit.