re: Custom Chrome and Deference to Copyright Office

I share Terry Carroll's concerns regarding the court's willingness in Custom Chrome to defer to the Copyright Office on the appropriate test for conceptual separability. The test applied by the Office is similar to that reluctantly applied by Judge Weinstein in his dissenting opinion in the Kieselstein-Cord case, with all the negative consequences noted by Judge Weinstein---a bias against modern design in favor of traditional, representation ornamentation. Although I am not convinced that the courts have found a really workable test, at least they are struggling with the implications of divining the line between copyrightable and uncopyrightable aspects of useful articles. Any other sources on the question of deference to the Copyright Office? Any arguments as to why the Copyright Office is not to be accorded the traditional deference given administrative agencies?

Professor Amy Cohen
School of Law, Western New England College ACohen[_at_]LLAMA.LNET.WNEC.EDU Received on Fri Oct 06 1995 - 17:55:56 GMT