An examination of the cases prior to Feist reveals two distinct standards
being invoked by the courts to determine if a compilation of facts had the
requisite originality to qualify for copyright protection. First, an approach,
which has come to be known as the "sweat of the brow" test, accepts industry
and effort as sufficient to establish originality even when such effort lacks
imagination or judgment. This approach was most frequent in a series of
cases which protected copyright in such works as alphabetical telephone
directories,3 4 the very type of work at issue in Feist. These cases found the
requisite originality for copyrightability in the effort, time, and money
expended to create the compilation of uncopyrighted materials. This "sweat
of the brow" test was stated in the following terms in the early case of'Jeweler's
Circular Publishing Co. v. Keystone Publishing Co
The man who goes through the streets of a town and puts down the names of each of
the inhabitants, with their occupations and their street number, acquires material of
which he is the author. He produces by his labor a meritorious composition, in which
he may obtain a copyright, and thus obtain the exclusive right of multiplying copies of
his work