Copyright Horrors
In 1925, a German court ruled that the film “Nosferatu,” directed by F.W. Murnau, violated the copyright of this famous author’s novel, “Dracula.”
Who is Bram Stoker?
This legal standard was first articulated by the Ninth Circuit in Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 216 F.2d 945 (9th Cir. 1954) to decide whether a fictional character can be protected as a separate, independent work of authorship apart from the story in which it appears.
What is the “story being told” test?
Momofuku Ando is the inventor of this patented food product (U.S. Patent No. 3,997,676) in which the product at the upper portion is denser than the lower portion so that hot water can effectively permeate the product during the cooking process.
What are instant ramen noodles?
Harlan Ellison's claim that this 1984 film borrowed from his work on The Outer Limits ended with an acknowledgment added to later prints.
What is The Terminator?
This iconic 1983 Michael Jackson music video, featuring dancing zombies, was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in 1984 as a motion picture, demonstrating that music videos can receive copyright protection separate from their underlying songs.
What is Thriller?
This copyright filing failure caused the “Dracula” novel to become part of the public domain in the United States after the book was published in the United States (under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1909).
What is the failure to deposit the required two copies with the US Copyright Office?
This copyright test, named after the fictional private detective created by author Dashiell Hammett, states that a character is copyrightable only if it is “distinctly delineated,” meaning that the character has unique, identifiable traits, a level of complexity, and sufficient character development.
What is the “Sam Spade” test?
Inventors Harrison Newlin and Marvin Keck came up with a unique patented solution (U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,591) for keeping these two items separate and stable in a jar for the laziest of breakfast eaters.
What are peanut butter and jelly?
In 1990, the Supreme Court held that the owner of the underlying story could block distribution of a derivative film after the renewal term, in a case about this Hitchcock movie.
What is Rear Window (Stewart v. Abend)?
Although Sony Pictures Animation produced this hit 2025 animated musical about a girl group battling demons, Netflix Studios filed federal trademark applications for its title to cover merchandise like blankets and phone cases.
What is Kpop Demon Hunters?
Peter Gallagher, the author of the 2006 book “The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines,” brought suit against Lions Gate Entertainment for copyright infringement, claiming that this 2011 anti-horror horror film copied his book substantially.
What is “Cabin in the Woods?”
Trying to copyright this type of literary character would not be a worthy financial investment, for the character would likely not pass the “distinctly delineated” or the “sufficient delineation” test.
What is a “stock character?”
This individual’s patent for “removable lids or covers without integral tamper element secured only by friction or gravity on both the inside and the outside of the mouth of the container” (U.S. Patent No. 2,487,400) launched thousands of parties in the US starting in the late 1940s.
Who is Earl S. Tupper (or just “Tupper”)?
In 1977, the Ninth Circuit found that a fast-food chain's fantasyland characters infringed a children's TV show from the Krofft brothers featuring a talking flute.
What is H.R. Pufnstuf (Sid & Marty Krofft v. McDonald's)?
In 2018, Nirvana sued fashion designer Marc Jacobs over a smiley-face design appearing in his "Bootleg Redux" collection, alleging copyright infringement and false designation of origin. The collection paid tribute to this music genre that emerged from the Pacific Northwest.
What is Grunge?
This horror movie franchise, the subject of the 2018 Horror, Inc. v. Miller copyright infringement lawsuit based on The Copyright Act of 1978, dealt with the Act’s 35-year copyright termination right and works-for-hire.
What is the “Friday the 13th" movie franchise?
In March 2026, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York used this test to rule against author Lynne Freeman claim’s that bestselling fiction author Tracy Wolff plagiarized her romance-fantasy drafts to create the popular “Crave” series, stating that genre-specific elements or characters such as “hot, sexy, dangerous boys” do not receive copyright protection because they are frequently employed by multiple authors.
What is the “substantial similarity” or “substantially similar” test?
In the 1970s, inventors Karl and Francis Jessen patented a clever solution to circumvent FDA rules against red dyes to produce this food product.
What are maraschino cherries?
In January 2017, Paramount and CBS settled their suit over this crowdfunded Star Trek fan project, which centered on a character named Garth of Izar.
What is Axanar?
First held in 2012 and federally registered as a trademark for live music festival services in 2013, this three-day country music festival at Washington's Gorge Amphitheatre announced a hiatus for 2026 after 13 editions.
What is Watershed Festival?
This film immediately entered the public domain under pre-1978 copyright law for failure to include the copyright notice in the final print, making it unprotected by copyright law.
What is “Night of the Living Dead?”
There is nothing casual or indiscriminate about this copyright infringement test used by the Second Circuit in copyright cases when a work contains both protectible and unprotectable elements.
What is the “more discerning ordinary observer” test?
In 1926, this company came up with a patented solution (U.S. Patent No. 1,634,332) to maintain a uniform product by cooking dry spaghetti, water and partially cooked sauce in a can, sealing the container and then heating the container to cook the ingredients so that the noodles did not form a pasty, gummy mass at the bottom.
What is Campbell Soup Company?
In 1980, the Second Circuit held that an author who argued a particular theory about the cause of this 1937 disaster could not stop a film from using that theory, because historical interpretation is not protected.
What is the Hindenburg (Hoehling v. Universal City Studios)?
In 2023, the trademark owner for this Swedish heavy metal band, known for songs about military history, filed a federal lawsuit in Florida against online sellers accused of selling unauthorized merchandise bearing the band's trademarks, including T-shirts and dog tags.
What is Sabaton?