originality

5 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25A446 Rodney Woodland v. Montero Lamar Hill Ninth Circuit 2025-10-17 Presumed Complete copyright-infringement fair-use ninth-circuit originality photographic-copyright sui-generis-rule Question not identified.
24-6839 Ralph W. Baker, Jr. v. Ta-Nehisi P. Coates, et al. Second Circuit 2025-03-25 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP copyright-law expression-of-ideas intellectual-property judicial-interpretation literary-rights originality Whether the court of appeals departed from this Court's decision that an author's arrangement of words is protectible: The right thus secured by the …
20-142 Michael Skidmore, as Trustee for the Randy Craig Wolfe Trust v. Led Zeppelin, et al. Ninth Circuit 2020-08-11 Denied Amici (4)Response WaivedRelisted (2) copyright-act copyright-act-of-1909 copyright-protection deposit-requirement musical-works ninth-circuit originality selection-and-arrangement sheet-music tangible-medium Whether or not the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc correctly held that musical copyright protection under the Copyright Act of 1909 is …
20-132 The Moodsters Company v. The Walt Disney Company, et al. Ninth Circuit 2020-08-07 Denied Amici (2)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) audio-visual-characters circuit-split copyright-law literary-characters originality question-of-fact-vs-law 1. Originality is the "touchstone," the "sine qua non," and the "premise" of copyright law. An artist may obtain a valid copyright if she meets this "…
19-560 Jennie Nicassio v. Viacom International, Inc., et al. Third Circuit 2019-10-29 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2) actual-copying circuit-split copyright-infringement fair-use fairness idea-expression-dichotomy originality plot-elements scenes-a-faire wrongful-appropriation Whether the scènes-à-faire evidence exclusion for actual copying should extend to all plot elements naturally flowing from a simple formulation of the…