Varsity Brand won a 6-2 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the company to copyright two-dimensional combinations of stripes, chevrons and color blocks on cheerleading uniforms. Copyright law protects features separate from the “utilitarian aspects of an object.” The ruling is expected to affect the entertainment industry in disputes over merchandise and fashion. (Hollywood Reporter, March 22, 2017, by Eriq Gardner)
The ruling “reads the statute [copyright law] as giving remarkably broad protection to industrial designs,” writes Ronald Mann, (SCOTUSblog, March 22, 2017. The court found that the arrangement on the uniforms when separated from the uniform constituted “two-dimensional…works of…art” thus subject to copyright.