Gay Toys, Inc., Plaintiff-appellee, v. Buddy L Corporation, Defendant-appellant, 703 F.2d 970 (6th Cir. 1983)
Richard D. Grauer, Cullen, Sloman, Cantor, Grauer, Scott & Rutherford, Detroit, Mich., John M. Calimafde (argued), new york, for defendant-appellant.
Robert G. Mentag (argued), Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff-appellee.
Ronald Goldman, Chief Patent Counsel Asst. Secretary and Atty. for Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Cal., amicus curiae.
Before ENGEL and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.
BAILEY BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.
The matter raised in this appeal is whether or not toys are copyrightable subject material under the 1976 Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 101-810. The region court held that toys aren’t copyrightable as they are “useful articles” as defined under Sec. 101 for the statute. 522 F. Supp. 622 (E.D. Mich. 1981).
The appellant, Buddy L Corporation, is just a doll manufacturer positioned in nyc. It designed a brand new model airplane, the “Air Coupe,” which evidently was initially provided on the see site market to your public in April 1978. Id. at 623.
The appellee, Gay Toys, Inc., is just a doll maker based in Southeastern Michigan. Gay Toys also designed a new model airplane. In accordance with Gay Toys, its Product developing Committee came across in belated 1979 to go over tips for developing a brand new doll airplane. The committee had before it samples of various toy airplanes already on the market, including Buddy L’s Air Coupe, as well as catalogs of real and toy airplanes during its deliberations. The committee chose to direct a designer to create, within particular specified limitations, a brand new doll airplane. No two-dimensional technical drawings were made very first; instead, the designer created a lumber model from scratch. But, the designer had certainly one of Buddy L’s Air Coupes right in front of him he occasionally referred to it as he worked on the wood model, and. The end result was Gay Toys’ “Flying Eagle we.”