Judge Finds Copyright Lawsuit Over Tie-Dye Shirts Totally Frivolous
from the good-for-him dept
Many may associate tie-dyed shirts with hippies, The Grateful Dead and sharing, but apparently one maker of such shirts thought it owned a copyright on certain designs. Michael Scott points us to the news that a tie-dye shirt maker named Bonzai had claimed that another shirt maker, Broder Bros., had copied two of its tie-dye shirt design patterns and color schemes, but thankfully, the judge not only tossed the suit out as frivolous, but also handed over attorneys' fees as well. The judge found it ridiculous that anyone would claim a copyright on such things, noting that there was nothing original in the designs that made them deserving of copyright protection, and ordered the Copyright Office to cancel the registrations:Plaintiff admits that the tie-dye spiral design is common and not proprietary," Kauffman wrote, "so its only unique contribution was to select the colors red, white, and blue in one design and orange and yellow in the other."In arguing against having to pay attorneys' fees, Bonzai apparently claimed that since the Copyright Office had granted registration for the copyrights, it had every reason to assume they were valid. Of course, this ignores one simple fact: unlike getting a patent, the process of registering a copyright is about as close to an automatic rubber stamp as you can get. It's certainly nice to see a judge completely dismiss a frivolous copyright claim.
Kauffman found that neither color combo showed even "a modicum of creativity."
"Red, white, and blue are commonly matched colors, perhaps most notably on the American flag. Orange and yellow are adjacent in the spectrum of colors visible to the human eye," Kauffman wrote.
"Placing these basic, predictable color combinations into a pre-existing design does not satisfy the minimum creativity necessary to establish a valid copyright," Kauffman wrote
As a result, Kauffman concluded that suing over the alleged theft of such copyrighted designs amounted to a misuse of copyright law.
"Plaintiff's claim, based upon its selection of two or three commonly-combined colors in what it admits is an otherwise unprotectable design, is objectively unreasonable and frivolous," Kauffman wrote.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, tie-dye
Companies: bonzai, broder bros.
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Kauffman for SCOTUS
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Kauffman for SCOTUS
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In my view perhaps the court arrived the correct result, but the "legal path" it followed was painful to read.
Similarly, "frivolity", award of fees and costs, and an order to cancel the registrations are unusual and more grist for reversal on appeal. Of course, whether or not to appeal is a decision to be made by the copyright holder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And if you REALLY want to see what these tye-dye shirts looke like, go look at ANY tye-dye shirts. That's sort of the point of this case, they are all essentially the same.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The plaintiff's website is at: http://www.webdyes.com/
here's a link to the shirts they calimed violated their copyright:
https://www.broderbros.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=C1966¤tCol or=#
https://www.broderbros.com/cgi-bin/online/webshr/prod-detail.w?sr=DW520¤tColor=#
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Actually, the judge didn't rule that "any" tie-dye shirt couldn't get copyright, but that these specific two designs couldn't get copyright, because they were just so damn generic. Spiral design, red-white-and-blue color, etc...basically, lacking in the "creation" aspect of creativity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tie Dye T-shirts
[ link to this | view in chronology ]