Can you copyright a headline?

Not a chance, says The Patry Copyright Blog. At issue is a case pending in federal court in Chicago, Agence France Presse v. Google Inc., in which AFP says use of its headlines by Google News infringes its copyright. Baloney, says Patry, a copyright lawyer with Thelen Reid & Priest in New York. Copyright regulations expressly exclude short phrases and titles and "hundreds of opinions" back this up, he says.