Summary
In Kohus v. Mariol, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals adopts two-step test for substantial similarity in copyright infringement. The court identifies the aspects of a work that are protectible by copyright and then determination by the court of the substantial similarity of the protectible elements between the infringing work and the original work. Details this two-step approach for resolving the case are presented.
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Copyright-Kohus V. Mariol: The Sixth Circuit Adopts Two-Step Test for Substantial Similarity in Copyright Infringement
In 1987, Louis Kohus (Kohus) and John Mariol (Mariol) formed Kohus/Mariol, Inc. (KMI).1 Together, they developed consumer products including a portable children's playyard.2 The design of the playyard included a latch with two hinges to lock the playyard's rails in place.3 Kohus and Mariol copyrighted the drawings of the latch because it was a new design and safer than others in the market.4
After a disagreement, Kohus and KMI sued Mariol in an Ohio court.5 The litigation ended six years later in a settlement agreement.6 As part of the agreement, Mariol assigned all of his rights and interests in the playyard, including the design drawings, to Kohus.7 As a result of this agreement, Mariol's rights to the latch were terminated after 1994.8In 1995, Mariol, while acting as a consultant for Evenflo Juvenile Furniture Co. (Evenflo), faxed a drawing of a latch to Evenflo, which Kohus later claimed was substantially similar to the latch developed at KMI.9 Additionally, the next year, Mariol and a co-engineer developed playyards for Kolcraft Enterprises, Inc. (Kolcraft).10 While filing patent documents for the Kolcraft playyards, Mariol included latch drawing...See the full content of this document
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