How can the fixed requirement be met

Unlike patent law, copyright law does not require novelty. Judge Learned Hand gave an example of this principle in the case, Sheldon v. It says that when an element of a work is customary in a particular genre, it is not protectable. Similarly, although the composition of a photograph can be protected by copyright, certain compositions are so conventional that they cannot be protected by copyright.

Under merger, when there are only a few possible ways to express an idea, those expressions are not protectable. This means that individual words and short phrases are not protected by copyright. Longer phrases that are very conventional or factual may also be unprotectable.

For example, consider the following sentence: Marie Curie was born on November 7, This sentence is one of the only ways of expressing this information in English. Thus, it is likely uncopyrightable due to the merger doctrine.

Selden , a US Supreme Court case from In that case, the Supreme Court found that, although copyright protected a book containing accounting instructions and forms, copyright did not prevent the defendant from using the same accounting system in another book. Unless they possess a modicum of creativity, charts, graphs, and tables are not subject to copyright protection, because they are purely factual. Thus, they do not meet the originality requirement. For example, the xkcd Money chart by Randall Munroe, below, is sufficiently creative to be protected by copyright.

However, the table below, which shows some of the data from the "Dollars" section of Munroe's chart, is not copyrightable. In the context of copyright law, a work is considered to be fixed when it is embodied in a tangible, stable, and concrete form.

For instance, a short story that is printed on paper meets this requirement, while a live performance of the same short story that is not being simultaneously recorded does not. The Copyright Act of requires that in order to meet the standards of copyright law, works of authorship must be embodied in a form that is sufficiently permanent to be reproduced, communicated, and perceived.

Consequently, works that are transitory in nature are not protectible under copyright law, since they are not fixed. To illustrate the difference between a fixed work and a work that is not fixed in a practical scenario I will consider a real situation involving a university professor and a graduate student regarding the copyrights of lecture materials and associated class notes.

Rural Tel. After searching for archeological evidence on the Mongolian Steppes for a decade, finally you find evidence that definitively proves your hypothesis. Other examples of things that would be considered non-protectable facts. The only possible protection for titles is through unfair competition laws. Utilitarian language is not protectede by copyright law, because if it were, someone could get the exclusive rights to basic explanations like the instructions on how to assemble a chair or bake a cake.

By contrast, patent law protects truly original, novel, and useful instructions with practical value, and trademark law gives people limited protection to use utilitarian language in their business transactions or on products. We also offer competitive full fee legal services on a selective basis. For more information on the services we provide click here.

Is a web address a URL subject to copyrights? Are facts copyrighted? Can you copyright clothing designs? Are clipart images copyrighted? Value free legal services for creators like you? Support them. What's the best way to avoid legal problems for your business or creative work? Read our book! Paperback Ebook Audiobook. Ever wonder when you can reuse music, photo, or film clips from other sources?

Find out with our interactive Fair Use App. If the images and sounds to be broadcast are first recorded on a video tape, film, etc. If the program content is transmitted live to the public while being recorded at the same time, the case would be treated the same; the copyright owner would not be forced to rely on common law rather than statutory rights in proceeding against an infringing user of the live broadcast.

Categories of Copyrightable Works. Rather, the list sets out the general area of copyrightable subject matter, but with sufficient flexibility to free the courts from rigid or outmoded concepts of the scope of particular categories.

The items are also overlapping in the sense that a work falling within one class may encompass works coming within some or all of the other categories. Of the seven items listed, four are defined in section Stein, U. The scope of exclusive rights in these works is given special treatment in section , to be discussed below.

A two-dimensional painting, drawing, or graphic work is still capable of being identified as such when it is printed on or applied to utilitarian articles such as textile fabrics, wallpaper, containers, and the like. The same is true when a statue or carving is used to embellish an industrial product or, as in the Mazer case, is incorporated into a product without losing its ability to exist independently as a work of art.

And, even if the three-dimensional design contains some such element for example, a carving on the back of a chair or a floral relief design on silver flatware , copyright protection would extend only to that element, and would not cover the over-all configuration of the utilitarian article as such.

A special situation is presented by architectural works. Purely nonfunctional or monumental structures would be subject to full copyright protection under the bill, and the same would be true of artistic sculpture or decorative ornamentation or embellishment added to a structure. On the other hand, where the only elements of shape in an architectural design are conceptually inseparable from the utilitarian aspects of the structure, copyright protection for the design would not be available.