*Pursuant to Local Rule 47.5, the Court has determined that this

opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under

the limited circumstances set forth in Local Rule 47.5.4.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

For the Fifth Circuit

No. 96-10232

Summary Calendar

LLOYD POISSENOT, doing business as Poissenot Productions;

KAREN HUGHES, doing business as Stock Options,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

VERSUS

DALLAS COWBOY FOOTBALL CLUB, INC.;

TEXAS STADIUM CORPORATION; JERRY JONES,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court

For the Northern District of Texas

(3:94-CV-2698-G)

August 29, 1996

Before JONES, DeMOSS, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

In January 1993, Lloyd Poissenot, a commercial photographer,

and Karen Hughes, a public relations agent, met with representatives of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company for the purpose of
2

formulating a plan to photograph an appropriate scene or object

that would be suitable for the cover of the June 1993-94 Business

White Pages for the Greater Dallas area for Southwestern Bell

Telephone Company. In February, Hughes made arrangements for

Poissenot to take pictures of the Dallas Cowboy Victory Parade in

downtown Dallas. Later in the month, representatives of Southwestern Bell met with Poissenot and Hughes and decided to combine

shots of the parade with a picture of the Super Bowl trophy in

possession of defendants Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboy Football

Club. After taking separate pictures of the Super Bowl trophy, a

composite was prepared which combined a daytime picture of City

Hall Plaza, the downtown Dallas buildings that surround it and the

parade crowd with a picture of the Super Bowl trophy. Ultimately,

because of complaints by an official of the City of Dallas, this

composite was not used on the cover of the Southwestern Bell

Directory; and instead a picture of the Super Bowl trophy by itself

was used. Later on, the Dallas Cowboy Football Club hired another

photographer to make a composite photo to be placed on season

tickets distributed to season ticket holders for the Cowboy

football games. This was not the first occasion on which the

Dallas Football Club, Inc. had used composite images of a Super

Bowl trophy on their tickets. In the season ticket composite, the

Super Bowl trophy is positioned over Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas

in an evening shot and the entire skyline of Dallas is in the

distant background. 
3

Believing that the composite on the season tickets infringed

upon their copyright of the composite prepared for Southwestern

Bell, Poissenot and Hughes sued the defendants in the federal

district court in Dallas for copyright infringement. The

defendants moved for summary judgment on the grounds that either

(1) there were no copyrightable elements in Poissenot’s composite

picture or (2) the two pictures were not, as a matter of law,

substantially similar. The district court granted the motion for

summary judgment and Poissenot and Hughes appealed.

We have carefully reviewed the briefs, the record excerpts and

relevant portions of the record itself. For the reasons stated by

the district court in its Memorandum Order entered in this case

under date of September 21, 1995, we are satisfied that the

district court correctly assessed the facts and law as warranting

a summary judgment in favor of defendants. Accordingly, we AFFIRM

the final judgment that plaintiffs take nothing which was entered

under date of September 21, 1995, and the denial of plaintiffs’

motion for new trial by the district court on February 1, 1996.

AFFIRMED.