Opinion ID: 766357
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The more discerning ordinary observer standard

Text: 39 The appellants contend that we should apply the more discerning ordinary observer standard that we enunciated in Folio Impressions, 937 F.2d at 765-66. This test is applied when a work contains both protectible and unprotectible elements, and requires the court to eliminate the unprotectible elements from its consideration and to ask whether the protectible elements, standing alone, are substantially similar. See Knitwaves, 71 F.3d at 1002; Folio Impressions, 937 F.2d at 765 66. For example, in Folio Impressions, we considered the alleged copying of a fabric design that consisted of stylized roses arranged on a complex background. Testimony at trial revealed that the pattern's designer had copied the background from a document which was in the public domain, and contributed nothing, not even a trivial variation to the design. Folio Impressions, 937 F.2d at 764. Since the background design lacked originality, it was not copyrightable, and consequently the copyright extended only to the roses which were superimposed on top of the background, and to the arrangement of those roses. See id. at 763 65; see also Knitwaves, 71 F.3d at 1003. Having narrowed the scope of the copyright, we applied a more discerning ordinary observer test and compared only the protected portion of the design -- that is, the roses and the way they were arranged, rather than their display against the background -- to the allegedly infringing fabric design. Folio Impressions, 937 F.2d at 765 66; see also Knitwaves, 71 F.3d at 1003. 40 As we have subsequently cautioned, Folio Impressions featured rather specialized facts and provides no authority for the broad proposition that in comparing designs for copyright infringement, we are required to dissect them into their separate components, and compare only those elements which are in themselves copyrightable. Knitwaves, Inc., 71 F.3d at 1003; see also Mastercraft Fabrics Corp. v. Dickson Elberton Mills Inc., 821 F.Supp. 1503, 1512 (M.D. Ga. 1993) (describing the more discerning test in Folio Impressions as predicated on the fact that the entire background design of the fabric came from a public domain source). Here, there is no contention that either party imported unprotectible material from the public domain into its floral fabric design. We therefore need not apply the more discerning ordinary observer standard. 41