No, You Can't Copyright A Hookah

from the lessons-in-copyright dept

Mon, Jan 13th 2014 3:15pm — Mike Masnick

Thanks to the nature of "ownership society" and the way copyright maximalists have convinced so many people that every concept and idea should be "property" that is "owned" by someone, you get all sorts of bizarre copyright lawsuits thrown about. Here's just one recent example. Two California Hookah makers got into a legal dispute after one accused the other of copyright infringement, for copying the shape of a hookah water container, as seen in the following image:

Thankfully, both a district court and now an appeals court have explained to (you can't make this stuff up) "Inhale, Inc." that you can't copyright a hookah's shape. The courts found that the shape is utilitarian, not a form of expression, and thus not protectable under copyright.

The shape of a container is not independent of a container's utilitarian function--to hold the contents within its shape--because the shape accomplishes the function. The district court correctly concluded that the shape of Inhale's hookah water container is not copyrightable.

Not only did the two courts both toss the lawsuit, but they've awarded attorneys' fees to the defendant, Starbuzz, for facing such a frivolous suit.

Of course, almost anyone who's studied the basics of copyright would have known exactly how all of this would work out, leaving you with the simple question of wondering just what Inhale Inc.'s lawyers were smoking when they let the company move forward with the case.

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Filed Under: copyright, design, hookah

24 Comments

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out_of_the_blue, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:30pm

Wow! A new LOW in importance! Marijuana Mike digs deeper!
When will his unbroken decline from the high of "Streisand Effect" end? It's like watching premature dementia set in.
Masnicking: daily spurts of short and trivial traffic-generating items.

11:30:04[m-901-4]
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- memphislimsan, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:41pm
  
  Re: Wow! A new LOW in importance! Marijuana Mike digs deeper!
  Hey dummy, Hookahs are used for tobacco products. Bongs are for weed. Why do you post here? Everyone hates you and you aren't changing anyone's mind. You must lead a sad, pathetic existence if trolling this site is so important to you.
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    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 4:22pm
    
    Re: Re:
    out_of_the_blue just hates it when due process is enforced.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2014 @ 10:19am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      out_of_the_blue just hates it when due process is inhaled.
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- tupe, 13 Jan 2014 @ 7:57pm
  
  Re: Wow! A new LOW in importance! Marijuana Mike digs deeper!
  Jesus Christ dude. You are one obsessive stalker on techdirt.
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 10:22pm
  
  Re: Wow! A new LOW in importance! Marijuana Mike digs deeper!
  I've got it! OOTB is Barbara Streisand!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:35pm

small reminder: the MPAA and RIAA once said they actively support child pornography and view it as (to quote them directly) "a good thing" because it allows them to attack piracy from a new angle....
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:41pm
  
  Re:
  I believe you but would like a link to refer to.
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  - John Fenderson (profile), 13 Jan 2014 @ 4:30pm
    
    Re: Re:
    I was going to dig it up for you, but then thought that perhaps that's not a search term I should use from my work computer.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:39pm

Speaking as an Arab the middle eastern culture has created a lot of art and culture and the Arabs, as far as I know, have never really been that big on Copyright. They created lots of art and designs without copyright. I find it a disgrace that someone would then try to copyright a hooka. Art and culture will live on, and will even be better off, without copywrong.
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 4:27pm
  
  Re:
  EVERY culture created a lot of art and design without copyright until some idiots decided to burden creation with it.
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Namel3ss (profile), 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:43pm

Now taking bets on how long before "Inhale Inc." files for bankruptcy to avoid paying the attorneys' fees award...
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The Prick, 13 Jan 2014 @ 3:51pm

Actually...
I find this interesting. Bravo!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 4:01pm

brings a new dimension to the term "Hookahs and Smack"
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Zem, 13 Jan 2014 @ 4:14pm

Clearly Inhale's lawyers were seduced by the shape. Hoping that when they rubbed it a genie would appear and grant their wishes. Unfortunately for them, they dreamed the wrong dreamed and rubbed the wrong thing.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 8:37pm

If only they'd patented the shape instead I'm sure it would have been a different result. Round corners anyone?
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 9:07pm
  
  Re:
  A design patent would have certainly helped. In this case copyright was weak and ultimately a loser, not because the container is not within a class for which copyright is a possibility, but because no matter the shape and its originality, in the final analysis it is a utilitarian object and there is no way for whatever makes it an original work to be separated so as to have an existence separate and apart from the container qua container.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2014 @ 10:44pm

Whoops!
I totally misread that.
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Jeremy Lyman (profile), 14 Jan 2014 @ 4:29am

But unfortunately Starbuzz will now be obliterated by a trademark suit from Starbucks.
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DannyB (profile), 14 Jan 2014 @ 6:14am

You can't copyright a Hookah
But you can patent it if it has rounded corners.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 14 Jan 2014 @ 9:07am
  
  Re: You can't copyright a Hookah
  Equally, it should be possible to get a design patent on the hookah.
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John85851 (profile), 14 Jan 2014 @ 3:52pm

But the lawyer still gets paid
Your last sentence says it all. Who, exactly, are the lawyers who are taking cases like these? I guess this really does show that some lawyers will take their client's money even if there's no basis for the case.
And who pays when the plantiff loses? Does this come out of the fee the client paid their lawyer? Or is Inhale, Inc stuck with the bill for their lawyer AND they have to pay the defendants?

I don't know if you can blame the lawyer for this. After all, I'm sure he's in the same situation as doctors: the client comes to them with instructions and the statement "if you don't help me, I'll find someone who will". It takes a pretty ethical lawyer to turn down business just because he knows he can't win.
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Anonymous, 15 Jan 2014 @ 4:08pm

But you CAN walk like an Egyptian.
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btrussell (profile), 16 Jan 2014 @ 2:53am

I bet they inhale.
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