500-2
503
Registration requirements for drawings, paintings, other pictorial works, and sculpture. Generally, in order to be entitled to registration, such works must contain original pictorial, graphic, or sculptural authorship. If the work consists entirely of uncopyrightable elements, registration is not authorized. On the other hand, the mere presence of uncopyrightable elements in a work will not prevent registration on the basis of features that are copyrightable under the statute. Thus a design, otherwise original, may be registrable even though it incorporates uncopyrightable standard forms, such as circles and squares.
503.01
Style and artistic merit. The registrability of a work of the traditional fine arts is not affected by the style of the work or the form utilized by the artist. Thus, the form of the work can be representational or abstract, naturalistic or stylized. Likewise, the registrability of a work does not depend upon artistic merit or aesthetic value. For example, a child's drawing may exhibit a very low level of artistic merit and yet be entitled to registration as a pictorial work.
503.02
Copyrightable pictorial, graphic, and sculptural expression. A claim to copyright in a work of the traditional fine arts will be registrable if the work contains at least a certain minimum amount of pictorial, graphic, or sculptural expression owing its origin to the author. If the expression is pictorial, the authorship could be expressed, for example, in the linear contours of a drawing, the assemblage of diverse fragments forming a collage, or the arrangement and juxtaposition of pieces of colored stone in a mosaic portrait. If the expression is sculptural, the authorship could, for example, be expressed by means of carving, cutting, molding, casting, shaping, or otherwise processing the material into a three-dimensional work of sculpture.
[1984]
