The lack of substantial similarity between the cartoon character “Snoopy” and the plaintiff’s copyrighted detective dog character defeated a claim for copyright infringement based on comic strips in which Snoopy appeared in “Sherlock Holmes”-like garb, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in an unpublished opinion Feb. 7 (Fisher v. United Feature Syndicate Inc., 10th Cir., unpub., No. 99-1162, 2/7/00).
The court further held that the idea of portraying a dog as a detective was not protectable under the Copyright Act.
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