Case ID: f-appx_496/html/0126-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Tony DiTOCCO, Appellant, v. Rick RIORDAN, Disney/ABC International Television Co., Inc., Walt Disney Co., Appellees.
    No. 11-4438-cv.
    United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
    Sept. 13, 2012.
    
      Marc Toberoff, Toberoff & Associates, P.C., Malibu, CA, for Appellant.
    Sanford M. Litvack, Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP, New York, N.Y. (Theresa M. House, Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP, New York NY; David Singer, Jenner & Block, Los Ange-les, CA, on the brief), for Appellee.
    PRESENT: RICHARD C. WESLEY and B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judges, and JOHN GLEESON, District Judge.
    
    
      
       The Honorable John Gleeson, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation.
    
   SUMMARY ORDER

Author Tony DiTocco appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Stein, J.), granting Appellees’ motion to dismiss Appellant’s claims for copyright infringement. The district court determined that Appellees’ five Percy Jackson & the Olympians books are not substantially similar to Appellant’s books, The Hero Perseus and Atlas’ Revenge, as a matter of law. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history, and the issues presented for review.

This Court reviews de novo a district court’s dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. See Peter F. Gaito Architecture, LLC v. Simone Dev. Corp., 602 F.3d 57, 61 (2d Cir.2010). To succeed on a claim for copyright infringement, the plaintiff must show (1) that the defendant had access to the copyrighted work, and (2) substantial similarity between the protectible elements of the respective works. Williams v. Crichton, 84 F.3d 581, 587 (2d Cir.1996). Presuming access, courts may determine substantial similarity on a motion to dismiss because “no discovery or fact-finding is typically necessary, ... what is required is only a visual comparison of the works.” Gaito, 602 F.3d at 64 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Where, as here, we are comparing subject matter that contains both protectible and unprotectible elements, we apply the “more discerning” ordinary observer test to determine substantial similarity: “we must attempt to extract the unprotectible elements’ from our consideration and ask whether the protectible elements, standing alone, are substantially similar.” See Knitwaves, Inc. v. Lollytogs Ltd. (Inc.), 71 F.3d 996, 1002 (2d Cir.1995) (emphasis in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). In making this determination, we compare the works’ “total concept and overall feel.” Gaito, 602 F.3d at 66 (internal quotation marks omitted). The copyright holder must be protected not only from literal copying but also from infringement that is apparent only by comparing the aesthetic import of the works in their entirety. See id. However, ideas are not protected, only their expression. See 17 U.S.C. § 102(b); Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d 119, 121 (2d Cir.1930) (Hand, J.); Walker v. Time Life Films, Inc., 784 F.2d 44, 48 (2d Cir.1986). Similarly, this Court withholds copyright protection from scenes a faire, which are “sequences of events that necessarily result from the choice of a setting or situation.” Williams, 84 F.3d at 587 (internal quotation marks omitted).

In light of these principles, we affirm the well-reasoned opinion of the district court.

Both sets of books chronicle the adventures of a young male protagonist named after the Greek hero Perseus. Appellees’ Percy Jackson & the Olympians series tells the story of demigod Percy Jackson as he battles classical Greek monsters while traveling all over the country with his fellow supernatural friends. In Percy’s world, the Olympic gods live among us— they wear sunglasses, use cell phones and ignore their demigod offspring. By contrast, in Appellant’s two novels, PJ Allen is a popular, athletic young man who is whisked away in his dreams to Ancient Greece where he fights mythical beasts and helps to restore order to the world by recreating important events in Greek mythology that have been erased from history.

The subject matter of these novels necessitates significant reliance on Greek mythology for many characters, settings and classic stories. This material has entered the public domain and is not protec-tible. See, e.g., Bissoon-Dath v. Sony Computer Entm’t Am., Inc., 694 F.Supp.2d 1071, 1088 (N.D.Cal.2010). By comparing the protectible elements of the parties’ works, with an eye toward the “total concept and overall feel,” the district court properly determined that the two sets of books are not substantially similar as a matter of law.

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is hereby AFFIRMED.