In the United States, copyright can protect a broad variety of forms of art and expression, including not only printed text but graphically depicted characters, visual art, and musical compositions. At its first conference of the October 2020 Term, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear three cases that could affect the scope of copyright protection for each of these forms of expression. Daniels v. Walt Disney Co., 958 F.3d 767 (9th Cir. 2020) (characters), petition for cert. filed, No. 20-132 (Aug. 3, 2020); Castillo v. G&M Realty, 950 F.3d 155 (2d Cir. 2020) (visual art), petition for cert. filed, No. 20-66 (July 20, 2020); Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 952 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2020) (musical compositions), petition for cert. filed, No. 20-142 (Aug. 6, 2020).  We report here on these cases.

Characters: ‘Moodsters v. Disney’

Although graphically depicted characters are not among the listed “works of authorship” protectable by copyright, 17 U.S.C. §102(a), the Ninth Circuit has extended copyright protection to such characters that satisfy a three-part test: “First, the character must generally have ‘physical as well as conceptual qualities.’ Second, the character must be ‘sufficiently delineated’ to be recognizable as the same character whenever it appears …. Third, the character must be ‘especially distinctive’ and ‘contain some unique elements of expression.’” DC Comics v. Towle, 802 F.3d 1012, 1021 (9th Cir. 2015) (citations omitted). Graphically depicted characters held to merit copyright protection include James Bond and Godzilla. Id. at 1020.