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This information is taken directly from the court opinion. It is not taken out of context nor is it altered.

From Yankee Candle Co. v. Bridgewater Candle Co., 259 F.3d 25 (1st Cir. 2001)

Yankee claims that Bridgewater has infringed its copyright on the labels of nine candle fragrances. The district court, proceeding in the following manner, concluded that Bridgewater's labels were non-infringing as a matter of law. First, applying the doctrines of "merger" and "scene-a-faire," the court determined that, to prevail, Yankee had to show that Bridgewater's labels were "nearly identical" to Yankee's. Yankee I, 99 F. Supp. 2d at 145. Second, in making this comparison, the district court ignored "certain similarities" that it viewed as "crude, physical elements" not entitled to copyright protection, such as the label's rectangular shape, its gold border, and the use of a full-bleed style of photography. Id. at 148. Third, the court applied the "ordinary observer" test to the remaining elements of the copyrighted label, ultimately concluding that no reasonable juror could conclude that any of the Bridgewater labels were substantially similar to the corresponding Yankee label. I at 148-50. Yankee claims that the district court erred by ignoring its proffered evidence of actual copying. As a result, says Yankee, the court incorrectly engaged in a point-by-point comparison of protected elements as opposed to a broader determination based on the "total look and feel" of the entire label. Yankee also argues that the district court was over-enthusiastic in determining which elements of the labels were not protected, and thus used an improper baseline for its determination of substantial similarity. For purposes of this appeal, we assume that Yankee provided sufficient evidence of actual copying to survive summary judgment. After applying the relevant law, we conclude that even if Bridgewater actually copied Yankee's labels, the merger doctrine operates so that no reasonable juror could have found Bridgewater's labels to be "substantially similar" to those of Yankee. We therefore affirm the grant of summary judgment on this basis.