Pivot Point, International, Inc. v. Charlene Products, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
372 F.3d 913 (2004)
Pivot Point (plaintiff) commissioned a German artist to sculpt a high-fashion mannequin head, called Mara, for use in hair-design competitions, with an early flawed batch accidentally shipped with a double hairline underneath the hair. Charlene Products (defendant) began selling its own similar mannequin, Liza, with closely matching facial features and the same double-hairline flaw; Pivot Point sued for copyright infringement, and the district court held the Mara mannequin could not be copyrighted at all, granting summary judgment for Charlene. Pivot Point appealed.
Whether a useful article can receive copyright protection for artistic features that are physically or conceptually separable from the article's useful, functional features.