Re: Re: Protecting Ideas

At 5:20 PM -0500 30/1/07, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>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?

I thought it was intended as an original expression of the idea of a work outside the scope of copyright protection -- an obviously self-defeating exercise.

The very fact that it might be taken for poetry, or an illustration of a point of law, belies the notion that it isn't protected if it's a recipe. The availability of copyright protection can't depend on whether the idea expressed is artful or banal. There are other ways to write your recipe -- "Be sure to preheat the oven. Pour the batter in greased cake pans." It's original enough. So's yours.

Everyone uses recipes as the example of unprotected expression, but while the merger doctrine forecloses copyright protection for a list of ingredients, even if it's an utterly unique and incredibly creative recipe that calls for idiosyncratic measures (grams and grains mixed with ounces and milliliters) of 50 exotic ingredients (a trade secret for sure), the narrative directions should be protected against verbatim copying even if they are so spare that they defy further reduction ("mix and bake at 350 deg. for 45 min.") because minimalism is original, unless it's copied from a protected work..

John Noble

>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
>(<http://www.rosenlaw.com>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)
>303.377.0634 (fax)
>www.jnxgroup.com
>
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Received on Thu Feb 01 2007 - 03:00:41 GMT