Recently, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals resolved a case about infringement of uniform designs for employees of Harrah's casinos. When trying to determine if the uniforms were copyrightable, the 5th Circuit imported the "marketability" test from the 9th circuit in relation to garments only. The test is "conceptual separability exists where there is substantial likelihood that even if the article had no utilitarian use it would still be marketable to some significant segment of the community simply because of its aesthetic qualities." Since the uniforms served no commercial purpose outside of being uniforms, the court affirmed summary judgment for the defendants.
However, one can think of examples where the opposite result would occur. There is a whole niche for "mechanic" T-shirts. They are apparently quite popular with people who are far cooler and more trendy than me. Mechanic T-shirts would be an example of uniforms that are marketable outside of their utilitarian function, and hence could be copyrightable.
Official name and cite of the case-
Galiano v. Harrah's Operating Co., 416 F.3d 411 (5th Cir. 2006)
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Are Uniforms Copyrightable?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think an interesting example is the NFL Referees's uniforms. Prior to this season, the uniforms were redesigned to give their uniforms a very distinctive look. I am guessing that this was done to ennsure that the NFL could trademark the design.
Remember, last year there were very popular Miller Lite commercials with the referees making calls. Miller Lite was not a sponsor of the NFL but was able to hint at association through the commercial. Since the uniform was the standard black and white stripes, the NFL was powerless. Their new uniforms seem to be a response to the old design not being trademarked.
Pseudo Intellectual my ass!
Post a Comment