Opinion ID: 604801
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Eden Plush Toys.

Text: 86 The district court ruled that Rey acted unreasonably with respect to the Eden plush toys project, but the court did not state whether its ruling was based on Rey's objections to the junky nature of the proposed product, or some other ground. We conclude, nonetheless, that remand is unnecessary in the present circumstances, see Produits Nestle, 982 F.2d at 640-41 (when a trial court misperceives and misapplies the law, remand may or may not be essential), since LHP did not present sufficient evidence to enable a finding that Rey's actions with respect to Eden were unreasonable. See id. at 642 (quoting Dedham Water Co. v. Cumberland Farms Dairy, Inc., 972 F.2d 453, 463 (1st Cir.1992)). 87 Applying the standard articulated supra p. 1393, reasonableness in the present context turns, first, on whether the reasons for rejecting a proposed product were material. As recently noted by the court, [t]here is no mechanical way to determine the point at which a difference becomes 'material.' Separating wheat from chaff must be done on a case-by-case basis. Produits Nestle, 982 F.2d at 641. In reference to conventional commercial products, such as the Perugina chocolates licensed in Produits Nestle, the appropriate test is whether the ground for refusing to approve a version of a licensed product is one which consumers would likely consider relevant. Id. In the context of an artistic creation such as Curious George, however, the highly subjective element of creativity, connecting product and author, implicates intangible considerations such as the total concept and feel of the product. See Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co., 429 F.2d 1106 (9th Cir.1970); see also Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions, Inc. v. McDonalds Corp., 562 F.2d 1157 (9th Cir.1977). We believe an author's discretionary right to disapprove an ancillary product, as not in keeping with the aesthetic image the author envisions for her artistic creation, reasonably may be made to depend on product conformity, at least where, as here, conformity with the author's aesthetic standard would neither set unreasonably high levels of commercial practicality nor foreclose all prospect of profitability on which the contract was predicated. See supra at p. 1393. 88 The evidence before the district court clearly showed that Rey imposed a demanding aesthetic standard for the design of the Eden Toys doll. 13 Eden's frustration at Rey's meticulous immersion in the details of toy design may indeed be understandable, the more so perhaps because of the irascible terms in which Rey appears to have chosen to couch her product criticisms on occasion. Even viewing the evidence as a whole in the light most flattering to LHP, however, we cannot conclude that her proposed changes were unrelated to her legitimate artistic concerns or to her desire to protect the aesthetic integrity of the Curious George image. 89 Reasonableness likewise requires, of course, that changes be made within a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner, i.e., in a manner which makes it possible for [the licensee] to rework the [product] in order to meet ... approval. See Zim, 573 F.2d at 1324. The evidence before the district court, which we have examined in detail, did not show that Rey's product criticisms, though caustic, were made in an unreasonable time or manner. And although the record is replete with testimony that Eden and LHP grumbled about Rey's product criticisms, neither Eden nor LHP ever communicated to Rey, prior to the present lawsuit, that her proposed changes to the Eden plush toy products were impracticable or even unduly burdensome. 14 Since Rey's objections to Eden's original toy design were based on criteria reasonably related to her legitimate artistic and aesthetic concerns about the proposed ancillary product, and were communicated in a time and manner which would permit Eden to conform the product, we conclude that Rey's rejection of Eden's product designs was not unreasonable. 90