Opinion ID: 4556094
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Facts & Ideas

Text: [F]acts are not copyrightable. See Feist Publications, Inc., 499 U.S. at 345. Here, the district court properly concluded that all tardigrades have eight short legs that run in pairs along a rounded body, . . . an O-shaped mouth in the center of the 'face' and . . . are capable of surviving in space without protection. App'x at 243. These scientific facts are not copyrightable because they are part of the public domain and thus do not provide a basis for an infringement claim. See 21 N.Y. Mercantile Exch., Inc. v. IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., 497 F.3d 109, 114 (2d Cir. 2007) ([A]ll facts -- scientific, historical biographical, and news of the day . . . may not be copyrighted and are part of the public domain available to every person. (quoting Feist Publications, Inc., 499 U.S. at 348)). Indeed, these facts have been employed in other creative works as tardigrades have been the subject of books, videos, and other works of fiction. Likewise, the tardigrade's ability to survive in space has been reported and discussed in numerous scientific studies and thus has entered the public domain as a scientific fact. See Sparaco v. Lawler, Matusky, Skelly, Engineers LLP, 303 F.3d 460, 467 (2d Cir. 2002) ([C]opyright protection can extend only to original authorship, and [] the publication of facts, regardless how much effort was expended in discovering them, is not original authorship. (citing Feist Publications, Inc., 499 U.S. at 347-48)); Perry v. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., No. 17-cv5600 (CS), 2018 WL 2561029, at  (S.D.N.Y. June 4, 2018) (The author of a scientific article published in a professional journal is certainly not entitled to a monopoly of the ideas presented therein. (quotation marks and alteration omitted)), aff'd, 765 F. App'x 470 (2d Cir. 2019). Several published studies have evaluated the tardigrades' ability to survive in space by exposing the animal to 22 space vacuum and radiation. In 2007, the TARDIS experiment represent[ed] the first record of an animal surviving simultaneous exposure to space vacuum and solar/galactic radiation, App'x at 142, and discussed the tardigrade's ability to survive in space. The results were later published in the scientific periodical Current Biology on September 9, 2008. Additional experiments, and their media exposure, have only further confirmed the widespread understanding of the tardigrades' unique ability to survive in space. Similarly, ideas are not copyrightable, and the extension of tardigrades' known ability to survive in space into the ability to travel in space is an unprotectible idea. See 17 U.S.C. § 102(b); Attia v. Soc'y of N.Y. Hosp., 201 F.3d 50, 54 (2d Cir. 1999) (It is a fundamental principle of our copyright doctrine that ideas, concepts, and processes are not protected from copying.). We have explained that the protection granted to a copyrightable work extends only to the particular expression of an idea and never to the idea itself. Reyher, 533 F.2d at 90. To grant property status to a mere idea would permit withdrawing the idea from the stock of materials that would otherwise be open to other authors, thereby narrowing the field of thought open for development and exploitation. This effect . . . would hinder, rather than promote, the professed 23 purpose of the copyright laws, i.e., 'the progress of science and useful arts.' Attia, 201 F.3d at 54 (quoting 4 Nimmer § 13.03[B] [2][a], at 13-60 to 61). In other words, as aptly put by Spock and Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures 1982), [t]he needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few . . . or the one. While [t]he distinction between an idea and its expression is an elusive one, Crichton, 84 F.3d at 587-88, Abdin's space-traveling tardigrade is an unprotectible idea because it is a generalized expression of a scientific fact -- namely, the known ability of a tardigrade to survive in space. See Attia, 201 F.3d at 55 ([I]f the idea is recorded at a very general level of abstraction, there may be little or nothing in the original work that is protected against copying.); see, e.g., Mattel, Inc. v. Azrak-Hamway Int'l, Inc., 724 F.2d 357, 360 (2d Cir. 1983) (describing the unprotectible idea of a superhuman muscleman crouching in what since Neanderthal times has been a traditional fighting pose). Just as, for example, an author's theory of who destroyed the Hindenberg based on historical facts is unprotectible, see Hoehling, 618 F.2d at 978-79 (holding author's hypothesis that crew member was responsible for destruction of Hindenburg was not copyrightable because it was based on his own interpretation of historical facts), 24 Abdin's idea of a tardigrade moving through space based on the scientific fact that tardigrades can survive in space is also unprotectible. See N.Y. Mercantile Exch., Inc, 497 F.3d at 114 (The 'discoverer' of a scientific fact as to the nature of the physical world, [a] historical fact, a contemporary news event, or any other 'fact,' may not claim to be the 'author' of that fact (quoting 1-2 Nimmer on Copyright § 2.03[E]); Sparaco, 303 F.3d at 466 (noting that historical, scientific, or factual information belongs in the public domain, and that allowing the first publisher to prevent others from copying such information would defeat the objectives of copyright by impeding rather than advancing the progress of knowledge). By permitting Abdin to exclusively own the idea of a spacetraveling tardigrade, this Court would improperly withdraw that idea from the public domain and stifle creativity naturally flowing from the scientific fact that tardigrades can survive the vacuum of space. See Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek: The Return of the Archons, Star Trek: The Original Series (1967) (Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity.). While Abdin contends that the tardigrade-human interaction in the Videogame is sufficiently original to be protected under copyright, 8 an 8 To the extent that Abdin argues that the Videogame tardigrade contains sufficient original expression to warrant copyright protection, that proposition is 25 independent comparison of the works reveals numerous differences between the tardigrade-human interaction in the Videogame and in Discovery that tend to undercut substantial similarity. Durham Industries, Inc. v. Tomy Corp., 630 F.2d 905, 913 (2d Cir. 1980); see also id. (As a matter of logic as well as law, the more numerous the differences between two works the less likely it is that they will create the same aesthetic impact so that one will appear to have been appropriated from the other.). More specifically, Abdin focuses on the Videogame tardigrade's unique adventures with humans, such as assisting movement through space, its large size (as compared to its microscopic Earthly counterparts), and blue color. Appellant's Br. at 13. While Discovery's tardigrade indeed shares at least some of these features, there are significant differences. As to space travel, for example, in the irrelevant to this appeal. Under settled precedent, [t]o prevail on a claim of copyright infringement, the plaintiff must demonstrate both (1) ownership of a valid copyright and (2) infringement of the copyright by the defendant. Yurman Design, Inc., 262 F.3d at 108-09. The validity of the copyright depends upon originality. Id. at 109. When evaluating infringement, the standard . . . is whether the defendant's work is 'substantially similar' to the plaintiff's work. Eden Toys, Inc. v. Florelee Undergarment Co., 697 F.2d 27, 34 (2d Cir. 1982), superseded on other grounds by rule as stated in Fed. Treasury Enter. Sojuzplodoimport v. SPI Spirits Ltd., 726 F.3d 62, 84 (2d Cir. 2013). Therefore, the fact that the Videogame might contain sufficient original expression for copyright protection, is irrelevant to the issue of whether Discovery is substantially similar to the protectible elements of the Videogame to establish infringement. See id. (distinguishing between the standard for sufficient originality and the test for infringement). 26 Videogame, the tardigrade envelop[s] a human being and the tardigrade flies through space with the person inside it. Appellant's Br. at 14-15; see also App'x at 71 (depicting the tardigrade hug). In comparison, in Discovery, Ripper is confined in a glass chamber aboard the Discovery, hooked up to the DASH Drive, and used as a supercomputer to guide the ship as it jumps to different parts of the galaxy. As to physical traits, while the tardigrade in the Videogame is a luminescent blue and Ripper does appear to be blue at times, it is primarily a darkish-brown or greenish color and its coloring seems to change. Compare App'x at 71 (blue tardigrade enveloping Carter), with Suppl. App'x at 143 (7:30) and Suppl. App'x at 143 (25:42) (green or brown Ripper), Suppl. App'x at 145 (29:38-30:50) (greenish brown Ripper). App'x at 71 (Abdin's tardigrade). Suppl. App'x at 143 at 25:42 (Ripper). 27 Most significantly, while it is unclear what role the nameless tardigrade plays in the Videogame, Ripper is very much at the center of a fullydeveloped story in Episodes 3, 4, and 5 of the first season of Discovery. It is given the nickname Ripper because it is first encountered attacking and killing numerous Starfleet personnel and Klingons. App'x at 45-46. While Ripper is first believed to be inherently hostile, its character evolves as Burnham and her colleagues eventually discover that Ripper was violent only in self-defense and is not a direct threat to life. App'x at 45-46. When Burnham realizes that the crew's use of Ripper in the DASH Drive is doing it harm, she and others try to intervene. And when the jumps take too great a toll on Ripper, another crew member takes Ripper's place to facilitate the jumps. In the end, completing the story, Burnham and the Discovery crew determine to set Ripper free so that it might live long and prosper. In sum, even assuming Abdin's original expressions of a spacetraveling tardigrade may be protectible under copyright law, an independent comparison of the works reveals that there is no substantial similarity between the protectible features of Abdin's tardigrade and Ripper from Discovery. 28