We use cookies to customise content for your subscription and for analytics.
If you continue to browse Lexology, we will assume that you are happy to receive all our cookies. For further information please read our Cookie Policy.
Lexology logo
  Request new password

No copyright protection for virtual furniture

  • McDaniel & Park, P.C.
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 4 2012

Copyright and trademark law are often ineffective tools in attempts to protect the intellectual property in our most utilitarian products.

more related articles »

No copyright coverage of digital images of useful items (furniture)

  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 12 2012

Copyright covers original, non-useful works of authorship; including pictoral, sculptural and graphic works, fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

more related articles »

Second Circuit affirms dismissal of copyright claim in use of images of "high-end" furniture

  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 21 2013

In a summary order handed down December 23, 2012, the United States Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of

more related articles »

Copyright protection rejected for water container design

  • Fox Rothschild LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 27 2012

A recent court decision relating to the design of a hookah’s water container highlights the distinction between “works of authorship” (which can be protected under copyright law) and “useful articles” (which cannot).

more related articles »

Copyright protection in the furniture industry

  • Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • February 5 2010

Intellectual property ("IP") law offers the furniture designer the opportunity to carve out a unique niche in the marketplace.

more related articles »

"Under what circumstances does a copy become an original?"

  • Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • December 7 2010

This is the question posed at the beginning of the catalog issued by The Museum of Modern Art in New York in connection with its recent exhibition, The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today.

more related articles »

One size doesn’t fit all

  • Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 29 2012

Design patents, trade dress and copyrights each have different requirements, resulting in the need for a multi-faceted approach.

more related articles »

Fictional characters in new media

  • Lathrop & Gage LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 9 2010

Spiderman, James Bond, Wonder Woman, Batman these iconic heroes remain among the best-known fictional characters of our time, and, as characters, are afforded copyright protection, independent of the works in which they appear.

more related articles »

If you build it, will the lawyers come? 3D printing and copyright infringement

  • Pattishall McAuliffe Newbury Hilliard & Geraldson LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • November 18 2011

As I previewed earlier this week, I want to talk about the copyright implications for 3D printers.

more related articles »

Fourth Circuit affirms: ornate furniture more than just a chair to sit in

  • Williams Mullen
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • August 23 2010

The Fourth Circuit affirms the district court's decision in a six-year battle in Universal Furniture International, Incorporated("Universal") v. Collezione Europa USA, Incorporated ("Collezione"), Nos. 07-2180, 09-1437 (4th Cir. 2010).

more related articles »

DMCA infringement notices results in finding of utilitarian copyright claims

  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • November 20 2010

On Oct. 21, 2010, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Civil Action No. 2:10-cv-2765 (Judge Wm. B. Shubb) entered a temporary restraining order prohibiting Zen Path, LLC from submitting infringement notices to eBay claiming that Design Furnishings, Inc.'s wicker furniture infringes Zen Path's copyrights in numerous articles of wicker furniture.

more related articles »

Fourth Circuit strengthens copyright protection for furniture

  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • August 26 2010

On August 20, 2010, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Middle District of North Carolina's rulings on liability and damages against Collezione Europa.

more related articles »

DC Comics v. Towle

  • Loeb & Loeb LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • February 22 2013

In action asserting copyright and trademark infringement claims related to defendant’s production and sale of Batmobile replicas, district court

more related articles »

Textbook copyright protection in the era of open education content

  • Jones Day
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • May 24 2012

Over the past decade, pundits have predicted that new companies harnessing the internet and related electronic devices would bring about the end of the record industry, print newspapers, and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

more related articles »

Jovani Fashion, Ltd. v. Fiesta Fashions: Second Circuit finds dress designer's copyright claim weak at the seams

  • Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • November 29 2012

On October 15, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its opinion in Jovani Fashion, Ltd. v. Fiesta Fashions , Docket No. 12-598-cv, 2012 WL 4856412, holding that the prom dress artwork of fashion designer Jovani Fashions, Ltd. (“Jovani”) lacked copyrightable elements, and thus, could not be infringed by a competitor’s design.

more related articles »

UK Supreme Court holds that U.S. copyright claims are justiciable in English courts

  • McDermott Will & Emery
  • -
  • United Kingdom, USA
  • -
  • September 30 2011

The UK Supreme Court has held that Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets are not sculptures due to their utilitarian nature and consequently do not constitute artistic works under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA).

more related articles »

How useful is your Halloween costume? Knock-off costumes and the useful article doctrine

  • Foley Hoag LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 31 2011

So, I hear you are selling Halloween costumes, the designs for which you copied from another manufacturer.

more related articles »

Stormtroopers suffer crushing defeat in the English court - Star Wars copyright decision serves as a reminder to the creative industries

  • Dorsey & Whitney LLP
  • -
  • United Kingdom, USA
  • -
  • December 21 2009

On 16 December 2009 the Court of Appeal of England & Wales gave its decision in the case of LucasFilm Ltd v. Ainsworth.

more related articles »

What is a "sculpture" for copyright purposes? Can an action be brought for the infringement of a foreign copyright?

  • Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
  • -
  • Canada, United Kingdom, USA
  • -
  • September 21 2011

In an article published in March 2010, we commented on a decision of the English Court of Appeal which considered the meaning of the term "sculpture" in a copyright context as well as a conflict of law issue.

more related articles »

Lucasfilm wins right to sue in UK for infringement of U.S. copyright

  • Greenberg Traurig LLP
  • -
  • United Kingdom, USA
  • -
  • August 10 2011

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rules on protection of Stormtrooper headgear and justiciability of U.S. copyright in English courts.

more related articles »

Peter and the wolf leave the public domain Supreme Court holds Copyright Restoration Law is constitutional

  • Pattishall McAuliffe Newbury Hilliard & Geraldson LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 18 2012

On January 18, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Golan v. Holder, No. 10-545, 565 U.S. (2012), that a law bestowing U.S. copyright protection on certain foreign works that had previously been in the public domain is constitutional under both the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and the First Amendment.

more related articles »

Who’s afraid of fair use? Is fair use a right and not a defense any more?

  • Duane Morris LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 14 2013

There's a point in evolution when you can say that over evolutionary time Something Big has happened -- or even mutated into something dramatic. I

more related articles »

Will fashion designs finally be clothed in copyright protection?

  • Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • September 13 2012

After many attempts, it appears that clothing designs may finally gain protection in the United States.

more related articles »

Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and the ghost of Quality King

  • Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • April 30 2013

Under a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, publishers of books and magazines who print and sell their publications in other countries through

more related articles »

Will fashion designs finally be clothed in “copyright” protection?

  • Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 7 2011

After many attempts, it appears that clothing designs may finally gain protection in the United States.

more related articles »

Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets English floodgates open to cross-border IP litigation...?

  • Hogan Lovells
  • -
  • United Kingdom, USA
  • -
  • October 25 2011

The UK's highest court of appeal, the Supreme Court, decided that Lucasfilm's UK copyright was not infringed by the manufacture and sale of replica Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets in the UK.

more related articles »

Tetris Holding, LLC v. XIO Interactive, Inc

  • Loeb & Loeb LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 6 2012

District court grants summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs and denies summary judgment to defendant on copyright infringement claim, finding as a matter of law that defendant did not merely copy rules and functionality of video game Tetris, but copied game’s entire “look and feel” and that elements of defendant’s game Mino were substantially similar to protectible elements of plaintiff’s game.

more related articles »

Fashion police

  • Dykema Gossett PLLC
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 19 2010

For decades, fashion designers have watched their new designs be quickly copied with knock-off pieces that pop up on the open market shortly after the originals appeared on runways.

more related articles »