RE: Re: Protecting Ideas

As in real life, in copyright law size isn't everything; in fact it's not much. A haiku containing 17 syllables in the pattern 5-7-5 would be copyrightable subject matter under 17 USC 102(a), but the same number of syllables in a cake recipe probably wouldn't under 17 USC 102(b). ["Preheat the oven. Be sure to grease the cake pans. Pour batter in pans."] Perhaps these 17 syllables are copyrightable in the context of *this* email simply because it is intended to be a haiku and not really a cake recipe? In the context of a bumper sticker, does the size of the expressive message matter for its copyrightability, or only the expressive message itself?  

I think this on a bumper sticker would be copyrightable even without words: :-)  

But I don't own the idea of a smile, or the right to prevent someone else from coming up with that idea for a bumper sticker.  

/Larry Rosen  

Lawrence Rosen

Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com)

Stanford University, Lecturer in Law

3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482

707-485-1242 * cell: 707-478-8932 * fax: 707-485-1243

Skype: LawrenceRosen

Author of "Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and

                Intellectual Property Law" (Prentice Hall 2004)

From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of akeshet[_at_]imj.org.il Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 2:50 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Protecting Ideas  

I thought the shortest poem protected by copyright was Fleas, by Anonymous:  

Adam

Had 'em.  

Well, actually, I recall this one used as an illustration of "just how much is the whole work, or the heart of a work," when considering whether or not a quotation is a fair use.  

Amalyah Keshet

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem     

From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property on behalf of Michael Graham
Sent: Sat 27/01/2007 03:00
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Protecting Ideas

Not legal advice, and perhaps apocryphyl, but unless the design is entitled to protection as a work of visual arts, a short enough phrase to be printed on a bumper sticker probably is not sufficient to be entitled to copyright protection. I recall an old truth that the shortest legally copyrighted work was a 12 word "poem" by Archibald MacLeish: "Pity the poor hippopotamus, That cannot tell its top from its bottomus." But I could be wrong.  

Michael R. Graham

>From Chicago
 

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Larry Jenks Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 4:00 PM To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Protecting Ideas

I am a newbie, and although I have read many posts from this website, I really have no background/experience in the area of intellectual property rights. But I'm pretty sure this is an easy question...

I have come up with an idea for a t-shirt or a bumper sticker. The value of the idea is really in the words used to convey the idea, not the graphic design of the words and the way they are printed/colored/shaped or otherwise composed or presented. Is there any way to protect this idea?

Larry D. Jenks AIA, CSI, NCARB

JNX Group, LLC
165 South Hudson Street
Denver, Colorado 80246

303.322.6841
720.231.0634 (cell)
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