The Office will not register works that consist entirely of uncopyrightable elements (such as those discussed in Chapter 300, Section 313 and Section 906 below) unless those elements have been selected, coordinated, and/or arranged in a sufficiently creative manner. In no event can registration rest solely upon the mere communication in two- or three-dimensional form of an idea, method of operation, plan, process, or system. In each case, the author's creative expression must stand alone as an independent work apart from the idea which informs it. 17 U.S.C. § 102(b).
For more information on copyrightable authorship, see Chapter 300 (Copyrightable Authorship: What Can be Registered).
906 Uncopyrightable Material
Section 102(a) of the Copyright Act states that copyright protection only extends to "original works of authorship." 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). Works that have not been fixed in a tangible medium of expression, works that have not been created by a human being, and works that are not eligible for copyright protection in the United States do not satisfy this requirement. Likewise, the copyright law does not protect works that do not constitute copyrightable subject matter or works that do not contain a sufficient amount of original authorship.
The U.S. Copyright Office will register a visual art work that includes uncopyrightable material if the work as a whole is sufficiently creative and original. Some of the uncopyrightable elements that are commonly found in visual art works are discussed in Sections 906.1 through 906.8 below. For a general discussion of uncopyrightable material, see Chapter 300, Section 313.
906.1 Common Geometric Shapes
The Copyright Act does not protect common geometric shapes, either in two- dimensional or three-dimensional form. There are numerous common geometric shapes, including, without limitation, straight or curved lines, circles, ovals, spheres, triangles, cones, squares, squares, cubes, rectangles, diamonds, trapezoids, parallelograms, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, and decagons.
Generally, the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a work that merely consists of common geometric shapes unless the author's use of those shapes results in a work that, as a whole, is sufficiently creative.
Examples:
• Geoffrey George creates a drawing depicting a standard pentagon with no additional design elements. The registration specialist will refuse to register the drawing because it consists only of a simple geometric shape.
• Georgina Glenn painstakingly sculpts a perfectly smooth marble sphere over a period of five months. The registration specialist will refuse to register this work because it is a common geometric shape
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12/22/2014
