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Functionality Rulings Are Nothing To Cheer About

By Robert W. Clarida and Robert J. Bernstein

What do cheerleading uniforms and laminated faux-maple flooring have in common? And what does either one have to do with copyright law? Read on: Both have recently been the subject of dubious rulings about the copyrightability of useful articles that could, if not reversed, further muddy the already murky doctrinal waters the courts have created around this issue. This article discusses Varsity Brands, Inc. v. Star Athletica, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26279 (W.D.Tenn. 2014), and Home Legend v. Mannington Mills, 2014 WL 3687334 (N.D.Ga. 2014), and will suggest that they misconstrued what the Copyright Act means when it refers to the “utilitarian aspects” of a useful article. Under settled copyright principles, both the cheerleader uniforms in Varsity Brands and the laminated flooring in Home Legend certainly qualify as useful articles, but in analyzing the copyrightability of their decorative elements, these decisions fail to follow basic principles enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the seminal case of Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201 (1954).

From 'Mazer' to Copyright Act

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