(United States Supreme Court) - In a copyright infringement suit brought by a company that owns 200 copyright registrations for two-dimensional designs--consisting of various lines,chevrons, and colorful shapes--appearing on the surface of cheerleading uniforms that they design, and accomplish,and sell, against a competitor who also markets cheerleading uniforms, or the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision finding the copyrights eligible for protection under 17 U.
S.
C. section 101,concluding that the graphics could be 'identified separately' and were 'capable of existing independently' of the uniforms, is affirmed where a feature incorporated into the design of a useful article is eligible for copyright protection only whether the feature (1) can be perceived as a two- or three-dimensional work of art separate from the useful article, and (2) would qualify as a protectable pictorial,graphic, or sculptural work--either on its own or fixed in some other tangible medium of expression--whether it were imagined separately from the useful article into which it is incorporated. That test is satisfied here.
Source: findlaw.com