{"id":125,"date":"2014-03-13T19:38:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T19:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2014-03-17T12:30:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T12:30:47","slug":"how-long-must-a-phrase-be-for-copyright-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/?p=125","title":{"rendered":"How Long Must a Phrase Be For Copyright Protection?"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Times;\n\tpanose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-font-charset:78;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Cambria;\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmso-default-props:yes;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n@page WordSection1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\n\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n--><\/style>\n<p>Only original work product is entitled to copyright protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\">The United States Supreme Court has stated that the level of creativity required for a work to be \u201coriginal\u201d is extremely low. A work satisfies this requirement as long as it possesses some creative spark, \u201cno matter how crude, humble or obvious it might be.\u201d <i>Feist Publ\u2019ns, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc<\/i>., 499 U.S. 340, 345 (1991) (<i>internal citations omitted<\/i>). Thus, a work that originates from the author and contains any level of creative expression will satisfy the originality requirement. <i>See id<\/i>. Additionally, a copyrightable work is considered \u201cfixed in a tangible medium\u201d if it can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for more than a transitory period, such as an email. <i>See <\/i>17 U.S.C. \u00a7 102.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; color: #343434;\">However, under the Copyright Act, \u201c[w]ords and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans\u201d are not subject to copyright. 37 C.F.R. \u00a7 202.1(a).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>When considering phrases, Courts must balance these factors in deciding whether words or short phrases are entitled to protection under the Copyright Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; color: #343434;\">In <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Predator International, Inc. v. Gamo Outdoor USA, Inc.<\/i>, the plaintiff was attempting to enforce its alleged copyright registration for \u201cunsurpassed performance.\u201d<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>When considering this short phrase, a Colorado Federal District Court discussed in its opinion that other courts had found that short phrases, such as \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Words Come Alive<\/span>,\u201d \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Earth Protector<\/span>,\u201d \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Chipper<\/span>,\u201d and \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Retail Plus<\/span>,\u201d were not entitled to protection under the Copyright Act.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Court then held that \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">unsurpassed performance<\/span>\u201d was also a short phrase that was not subject to protection under the Copyright Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: '\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; color: #343434; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"><br \/>\nIf you are original work product that you would like to seek protection under the Copyright Act, or enforce your rights under the Copyright Act against a third party, please contact Internet Copyright Attorney Mark Ishman from the Ishman Law Firm, P.C. at (919) 468-3266 or mishman @ ishmanlaw.com.\u00a0 Also visit Mark Ishman&#8217;s Internet Copyright law web page at http:\/\/www.ishmanlaw.com\/internet-copyright-lawyer.php.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two to third word phrases have been found to be too short to be subject to protection under the Copyright Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,33,10],"tags":[38,37,18,17,36,35,16,12,11,15],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright-law","category-internet-copyright-law","category-online-marketing","tag-copyright-atttorney","tag-copyright-lawyer","tag-internet-advertising-law","tag-internet-advertising-lawyer","tag-internet-copyright-attorney","tag-internet-copyright-lawyer","tag-internet-law-attorney","tag-ishman-law-firm","tag-mark-ishman","tag-raleigh-attorney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ishmanlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}