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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 Folio Impressions, Inc. v. Byer California, 937 F.2d 759 (2d Cir. 1991)

[page 765]
In ruling that the arrangement of the roses in Pattern # 1365 was not original, the district court relied on Past Pluto Productions Corp. v. Dana, 627 F.Supp. 1435 (S.D.N.Y.1986). In that case it was held that the seven spikes of plaintiff's foam Statue of Liberty hats--uniform in size and shape as opposed to the uneven spikes on the crown of the actual Statue of Liberty--were not originals protected by copyright because the design was "composed of elemental symmetry and prompted most probably by the promise of convenience in manufacture." Id. at 1441.

The instant case is distinguishable from Past Pluto. The arrangement of the roses over the background portion of Pattern # 1365, while perhaps elementally symmetrical, does not appear to be designed to ease manufacture since, once the decision as to how to place the item against the background was made and executed, the whole piece was copied mechanically. Thus, it did not matter for manufacturing purposes of what the original design consisted. Rather, Sadjan's decision to place the roses in straight rows was an artistic decision. Further, there is no evidence that Sadjan copied the placement of the roses from any source. Consequently, the district court's finding that the particular arrangement given the Folio Rose in Pattern # 1365 was not original was clearly erroneous. Although the arrangement may have required little creative input, it was still Sadjan's original work and, as such, copyrightable. See Feist Publications, Inc., 111 S.Ct. at 1287.

It must be kept in mind that the scope of copyright protection for Folio's fabric design found above is narrow, extending only to the work's particular expression of an idea, not to the idea itself. See Walker v. Time Life Films, Inc., 784 F.2d 44, 48-49 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1159, 106 S.Ct. 2278, 90 L.Ed.2d 721 (1986); 17 U.S.C. Sec. 102(b) (1988). Hence, what is protected in this case is the Folio Rose itself and the way in which that rose is arranged; the copyright umbrella does not cover the idea of arranging roses generally in a straight line pattern.

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