500-4
503
Registration requirements for drawings, paintings, other pictorial works, and sculpture. (cont'd)
503.02
Copyrightable pictoral, graphic and sculptural expression. (cont'd)
503.02(a)
Minimal standards: pictorial or grpahic material. (cont'd)
Examples: (cont'd)
1)
(cont'd)
character of Chinese calligraphy painted upon horizontally striated grass cloth. Practice: Registration is not authorized in this case. Like typography, calligraphy is not copyrightable as such, notwithstanding the effect achieved by calligraphic brush strokes across a striated surface.
2)
An applicant for registration has developed a novelty item consisting of transparently clear plastic sheets bonded together around their periphery, and having a small amount of colored liquid petroleum in the air space between the laminated sheets. Any slight pressure upon the external surface results in the formation of undulating patterns and shapes, no two of which are ever identical. Practice: Since the specific outlines and contours of the patterns and shapes formed by the liquid petroleum do not owe their origin to a human agent, it is not possible to claim copyright in such patterns and shapes. The novelty of the idea embodied in the work and the effects achieved by the action of the petroleum under pressure like wise do not warrant registration.
[1984]
