Opinion ID: 745282
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prong One: Originality

Text: 53 The first issue is whether ERG's costumes are sufficiently original to justify protection as derivative works. We have explained what originality means in the context of derivative works as follows: 54 All that is needed to satisfy both the Constitution and the statute is that the author contributed something more than a merely trivial variation, something recognizably his own. Originality in this context means little more than a prohibition of actual copying. No matter how poor artistically the author's addition, it is enough if it be his own. 55 Sid & Marty Krofft Television, 562 F.2d at 1163 n. 5 (citations omitted); see also North Coast, 972 F.2d at 1033. 56 Before assessing whether ERG contributed something more than a merely trivial variation to the underlying copyrighted characters in the creation of its costumes, one more complexity needs to be added to the mix. Although the category of costumes has rarely been dealt with in the copyright context, it seems clear that for copyright purposes, costumes would fall under the category of pictorial, graphic and sculptural works and would be treated as sculptural works. See 17 U.S.C. § § 101, 103. This fact is critical to our determination, as Section 101 of the Copyright Act states that sculptural works of artistic craftsmanship receive copyright protection only 57 insofar as their form but not their mechanical or utilitarian aspects are concerned; the design of a useful article [ordinarily not copyrightable] ... shall be considered a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work only if, and only to the extent that, such design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article. 58 17 U.S.C. § 101. 59 Accordingly, any aspects of ERG's costumes that are purely functional, utilitarian or mechanical, will not be given any copyright protection. Id.; see also Fabrica Inc. v. El Dorado Corp., 697 F.2d 890, 893 (9th Cir.1983). Moreover, any artistic aspects of ERG's costumes will also not receive copyright protection unless they can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian purpose of the costumes. 17 U.S.C. § 101; see also Fabrica, 697 F.2d at 893. 60 Based on this statutory provision, the district court ruled that, Any differences in appearance between a derivative work and the preexisting work which are driven primarily by a functional, utilitarian or mechanical purpose cannot be considered when seeking artistic differences for the purpose of originality. Entertainment Research Group, 853 F.Supp. at 322-23. ERG argues that the district court committed clear error by utilizing this functionality test--which ERG contends should only be used to determine if a sculptural work is ultimately copyrightable--to determine whether a derivative work is sufficiently original in the first place. In other words, ERG contends that the district court should have first made the traditional originality determination by examining whether any aspect of the derivative works--including the purely utilitarian aspects--created sufficient originality and then, second, used the functionality test to determine if the artistic aspects of the derivative works were conceptually separable from the utilitarian aspects such that the costumes could be copyrightable as sculptural works. 61 We disagree with ERG's analysis. In the instant circumstances, where the derivative works at issue are sculptures, it makes no sense to include the utilitarian aspects for purposes of determining originality when it is clear, in light of § 101 of the Copyright Act, that these utilitarian aspects are not copyrightable. Thus, ERG would illogically have the courts consider the uncopyrightable elements of a derivative work in order to determine if the derivative work is ultimately copyrightable. 62 A simple hypothetical may help explain how futile the approach ERG is suggesting would be. Under ERG's approach, a court could determine that a sculptural work is sufficiently original to qualify as a derivative work even if the derivative sculpture had absolutely no new artistic elements to it so long as the sculpture had at least one purely functional, non-trivial element to it that the author of the derivative sculptural work contributed. At the second stage of the ERG approach, however, the court would be forced to conclude that the derivative work was not copyrightable as a sculptural work pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 101 since it did not possess any new, non-trivial artistic features. Under such a scenario, the entire first step of the analysis would, therefore, have been pointless. Thus, because any utilitarian, functional or mechanical aspects of a derivative work will not be copyrightable in the long run, see 17 U.S.C. § 101, any differences in appearance between a derivative work and the preexisting work which are not conceptually separable from any utilitarian, functional or mechanical purposes should not be considered by a court in determining whether sufficient artistic differences exist to constitute originality. Accordingly, the district court was correct to eliminate any such differences from its originality analysis. 63 Having said this, it is now necessary to evaluate whether ERG raised a genuine issue of fact as to whether the non-functional aspects of the ERG costumes were sufficiently original. See, e.g., North Coast, 972 F.2d at 1034 (stating that summary judgment is appropriate where no reasonable trier-of-fact could find even trivial differences in the designs which were claimed to be copyrightable). Addressing this very issue, the district court concluded that no reasonable trier-of-fact could find even trivial artistic differences in design between the preexisting work and the underlying work. Entertainment Research Group, 853 F.Supp. at 323. 64 We agree with the district court that any artistic differences in the costumes are merely trivial. ERG alleges that Mr. Breed's declaration demonstrates that ERG contributed much that is recognizably its own to the costumes since Mr. Breed had to make a number of creative decisions to enable the costumes to be manufactured successfully and since Mr. Breed was guided by his artistic impression. The problem with ERG's argument, however, is that originality is not present solely because Mr. Breed placed a lot of thought and effort into figuring out how to transform the two-dimensional copyrighted characters into three-dimensional inflatable costumes. See, e.g., Feist, 499 U.S. at 352-56, 111 S.Ct. at 1291-93; Durham, 630 F.2d at 911 (stating that a display of manufacturing skill is not independently enough to constitute originality). Indeed, the courts and commentators seem to agree that making decisions that enable one to reproduce or transform an already existing work into another medium or dimension--though perhaps quite difficult and intricate decisions--is not enough to constitute the contribution of something recognizably his own. See, e.g., Nimmer, § 2.08[C] at 2-111 (stating that the mere act of converting two dimensions to three dimensions, although it creates a distinguishable variation, may not represent a contribution of independent effort because no one can claim to have independently evolved the idea and technique of working in three dimensions); Durham, 630 F.2d at 911 (holding that, The mere reproduction of the underlying characters in plastic, even though ... [i]t undoubtedly involved some degree of manufacturing skill, does not constitute originality); Gallery House, Inc. v. Yi, 582 F.Supp. 1294, 1297 (N.D.Ill.1984) (holding that the plaintiff moldmaker had not added any artistic effort since he had simply converted a two-dimensional design to a three-dimensional object). 65 ERG also argues that a material issue of fact exists with regard to originality due to the photographs and artwork attached to Mr. Breed's declaration that allegedly demonstrate that the costumes involve much more than merely trivial additions and alterations to the underlying copyrighted characters. Specifically, ERG contends that the differences between the representations of the characters in the flat reference artwork supplied by the characters' proprietors and their representations in the three-dimensional inflatable costumes are far from trivial since (1) the ERG costumes vary greatly in proportions and facial expressions from the original characters and (2) the ERG costumes contain many elements, such as the texture of the costumes and the manner in which they move which are wholly absent from the original artworks. 66 Viewing the three-dimensional costumes and the two-dimensional drawings upon which they are based, it is immediately apparent that the costumes are not exact replicas of the two-dimensional drawings. Indeed, as the district court observed with regard to the Toucan Sam costume, the proportions in the costumes are far different from those in the underlying drawings. However, as was discussed earlier, in evaluating the originality of ERG's costumes, any differences that exist because of functional or mechanical considerations should not be considered. The district court came to the conclusion that these differences in proportion were solely--or at least primarily--driven by the functional considerations necessitated by the fact that a human body must fit inside the costumes. Accordingly, the district court discounted any differences such as proportionality that were primarily caused by functional concerns. 67 We agree with the district court's conclusion that the differences in form, texture and proportionality that ERG points to as non-trivial differences all stemmed from functional considerations. Indeed, even though Mr. Breed states that he was forced to make an artistic decision as to what changes should be made to the costumes so that the original character's essence would not be lost, a close reading of Mr. Breed's statement reveals that this artistic decision was necessitated solely by the functional consideration that the scale of the character does not fit the human proportion and, therefore, must be changed so that the costumes can be functional. Accordingly, these so-called artistic differences are really nothing more than changes necessitated by utilitarian concerns. As such, these differences were appropriately not considered by the district court. 68 ERG does point to one truly artistic difference, however, as ERG claims that the facial expressions of the costumes contain more than merely trivial differences from the facial expressions seen in the underlying drawings. Although ERG is correct that there are some differences in these facial expressions, no reasonable trier of fact would see anything but the underlying copyrighted character when looking at ERG's costumes. Indeed, much like the Second Circuit in Durham concluded when looking at those three-dimensional derivative works, Tomy [i.e., ERG] has demonstrated, and the toys [costumes] themselves reflect, no independent creation, no distinguishable variation from preexisting works, nothing recognizably the author's own contribution that sets Tomy's figures apart from the prototypical Mickey, Donald, and Pluto [Toucan Sam, Geoffrey the Giraffe, Pillsbury Dough Boy, etc.], authored by Disney [Kellogg's, Toys 'R' Us, Pillsbury, etc.] and subsequently represented by Disney or its licensees in a seemingly limitless variety of forms and media. Durham, 630 F.2d at 910. In other words, because ERG's costumes are instantly identifiable as embodiments of the underlying copyrighted characters in yet another form, no reasonable juror could conclude that there are any non-trivial artistic differences between the underlying cartoon characters and the immediately recognizable costumes that ERG has designed and manufactured. Id. at 908-09. 69 This conclusion makes even more sense in view of the fact that ERG's customers--the companies--wanted costumes replicating their characters. Thus, because ERG followed detailed instructions from its customers regarding exactly how they wanted the costumes to appear, it can not be said that ERG's artistic contributions were more than merely trivial contributions. 70 ERG cites our decision in North Coast for the proposition that summary judgment is inappropriate here since the issue of whether ERG's artistic contributions are trivial is a disputed question of fact that should be reserved for the jury. See North Coast, 972 F.2d at 1034-35 (holding that whether the differences between a print for a dress and Mondrian paintings were non-trivial could not be determined as a matter of law at summary judgment). North Coast does not establish that summary judgment is inappropriate, however. Indeed, under the very language of North Coast, summary judgment in favor of a defendant is sometimes appropriate in certain copyright actions where no reasonable trier-of-fact could find even trivial differences between the original works and the reproductions. Id. at 1034 (citing Durham for this proposition). 71 The instant case is also distinguishable from the circumstances in North Coast because in North Coast, the artistic contributions that the district court examined and found trivial were deemed to be the heart of the entire derivative work of art at issue. Because those contributions were so crucial to the derivative work, there was a clear possibility that a reasonable trier of fact would find the derivative works to be recognizably the derivative creator's own product. Thus, we felt it improper for the district court to resolve the matter on summary judgment. Here, on the other hand, the claimed artistic differences in the facial expressions of the characters are clearly not the defining aspect of the costumes. In other words, while there may be some differences between the facial expressions represented on ERG's costumes and those in the underlying copyrighted characters, in the context of the overall costume, these distinctions are so slight that no reasonable trier of fact would see anything but a direct replica of the underlying characters. Therefore, while it was not appropriate for the district court in the North Coast circumstances to determine on summary judgment that the artistic contributions there were not more than merely trivial, it was perfectly appropriate for the district court in the instant circumstances to rule that no reasonable trier of fact could find any non-trivial artistic differences between ERG's costumes and the copyrighted characters the costumes were based on. 72 In sum, because Mr. Breed's Declaration and the photographs and artwork submitted in conjunction with his declaration do not raise any disputed factual issue as to whether there are any non-trivial artistic differences between ERG's costumes and the underlying copyrighted characters, the district court's grant of summary judgment was appropriate.