King Features Syndicates v. Fleischer, 299 F.2d 533 (1924) p.264

SUBJECT

copyrightable material

FACTS

The plaintiff was engaged in the creation and syndication to daily newspapers of a copyrighted comic strip. The defendnat manufactured and sold a toy which was an exact reproduction of the comic.

PROCEDURE

The district court denied a preliminary injunction, but the court of appeals reversed.

ISSUE

Was the reproduction copyrightable itself, or was it an infringement?

RULE

A comic strip character is copyrightable and cannot be reproduced in three dimension without violating the copyright.

HOLDING

Even through the defendant had not plagiarized all of the comic strip or all of its principal charaters, it had infringed by copying the character.

RATIONAL

Differences which relate to size and material are not important. The Copyright Act was intended to prohibit the taking of this conception.

POLICY/NOTES