The History and Doctrine of American Copyright Protection for Fashion Design: Managing Mazer

Abstract

In order to be copyright-eligible, a component of fashion design must be not only "fixed" and "original" (as discussed in the previous installment of this five-article series, On 'Originality'), but also constitute a work whose aesthetic characteristics are separable from the "utilitarian" material to which it is affixed.1 In this installment of The History and Principles of American Copyright Protection for Fashion Design, I trace the trajectory of the courts' rulings on the copyrightability of certain aspects of fashion design in the wake of the Supreme Court's pivotal 1954 decision in Mazer v. Stein.' I will begin with a discussion of the background and substance of the Supreme Court's Mazer decision. I will then provide a series of more or less detailed chronologies of lower-court rulings on the copyrightability of fashion design between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s, resulting in the crystallization of certain categories of presumptively copyright-eligible fashion works-namely, fabric patterns and lace; focal images placed on wearable objects; jewelry design; and some costume works.