Coyote Trails

The film 'Coyote Trails' was released on February 21, 1935, by Reliable Pictures. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published in the United States between 1928 and 1963 required a copyright renewal filing during the 28th year of their first term to maintain protection. For this film, the renewal window would have opened in 1962 and closed at the end of 1963. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no record of a renewal for this title. Reliable Pictures, a 'Poverty Row' studio, frequently failed to renew its low-budget westerns. As the copyright was not extended, the film entered the public domain in 1963 upon the expiration of its initial 28-year term. Furthermore, 'Coyote Trails' is listed in the 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain' by D. Richard Baer, which is a standard reference for identifying non-renewed titles. It is also widely available on public domain film repositories and through PD distributors like Alpha Video without any record of copyright enforcement.