“On the Bubble: In a state of uncertainty between two possible outcomes. This phrase is often used in reference to sports teams.” —www.idioms.thefreedictionary.com
With the Stanley Cup just around the corner, this month’s column deals with a recent case from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Grondin v. Fanatics, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65897 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 14. 2023), which involves an item of hockey memorabilia called “Slice of the Ice,” a “Lucite sculpture in the approximate shape of the Stanley Cup, with a hockey puck–shaped piece in the center filled with melted ice gathered from the rink used in a prominent hockey game.” The plaintiff in Grondin alleged that the defendant’s competing puck-shaped, water-filled hockey memento infringed his registered copyright in “Slice of the Ice.” In January, the court dismissed a first amended complaint with leave to replead, because the plaintiff failed to identify a “nonutilitarian, noncommonplace feature of the puck-shaped cavity.” The plaintiff filed a second amended complaint, alleging in paragraph 22 that the cavity in defendant’s item contained the same amount of water as did his Lucite puck, “such that shifting the position of the puck yields the same wave motion of the water inside.” The defendant again moved to dismiss, and on April 14 the court granted that motion with prejudice.
