sweat of the brow doctrine
sweat-of-the-brow doctrine. Copyright. The now-discarded principle that copyrights can protect the labor and expense that went into a work, rather than the work’s originality. • The Supreme Court rejected the sweat-of-the-brow doctrine in Feist Pubs., Inc. v. Rural Tel. Servs. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 111 S.Ct. 1282 (1991). Cf. SWEATWORK. [Cases: Copyrights and Intellectual Property 12(1).]
