Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of AppealsThe Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its opinion on the nature of federal copyright protection that can apply to the outfits worn by cheerleaders in a dispute between the makers of the two outfits illustrated above: Judge Karen Nelson Moore, who wrote the majority opinion, asked “Are cheerleading uniforms truly cheerleading uniforms without the stripes, chevrons, zigzags, and color blocks?” and looked at the distinction between the protection the mechanical or utilitarian design aspects of a useful object (that cannot be protected by U.S. federal copyright law) and the artistic elements applied to any useful object (which can): “[T]he design of a useful article . . . shall be considered a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work,” and thus copyrightable, “only if, and only to the extent that, such design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be…
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