Copyright Law Blog: Exclusive Rights

CAD software user interface copyrightable as a compilation of public domain elements

Shourin Sen - 16 February 2010 – 12:36 pm

Real View, LLC v. 20-20 Technologies, Inc., 2010 WL 455459 (D. Mass. 2010)

Real View and 20-20 Technologies sold competing CAD software that enabled consumers to model kitchens. 20-20 sent Real View a cease-and-desist letter, which Real View responded to by filing a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that it has not infringed 20-20′s copyrights. 20-20 filed counterclaims for copyright infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair competition, intentional interference with advantageous relations, and violations of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A.

The District Court of Massachusetts (Saris, J.) held a preliminary hearing to determine whether 20-20 Design contained expression that merited copyright protection, and if so, which parts. The Court’s decision is interesting for its attempt to synthesize the “abstraction, filtration, comparison” test, adopted by the Second Circuit in Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc., 982 F.2d 693 (2d Cir. 1992) (plaintiff claiming non-literal infringement), and the First Circuit’s decision in Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int’l, Inc., 49 F.3d 807, 820 (1st Cir.1995) (plaintiff claiming literal infringement) that criticized the “abstraction, filtration, comparison” test for obscuring the fundamental question of whether a work merited copyright protection at all.

20-20 presented the court with a list of fifty-four elements that it contended merited copyright protection. The Court found that this allowed it to skip directly to the filtration portion of the “abstraction, filtration, comparison” analysis:

Since 20-20 has offered a list of specifically protected elements, this Court need not engage in the abstraction process described in Altai and eschewed in Lotus. See MiTek Holdings v. Arce Eng’g Co., 89 F.3d 1548, 1555 (11th Cir.1996) (“[I]f the copyright holder presents the court with a list of features that it believes to be protectable …, the court need not abstract further such features.”); ILOG, Inc. v. Bell Logic, 181 F.Supp.2d 3, 11 (D.Mass.2002) (declining to “abstract” and proceeding to “filter” when parties identified elements of a computer program that were allegedly copied). Nevertheless, sitting in a Lotus position, the Court must read Altai through the lens of Lotus and thus filter out elements based on § 102(b) before filtering on the basis of merger, scenes a faire, or public domain.

Analysis

The Court found that many of the elements of the program design did not merit copyright protection when viewed in isolation. The Court however found that a compilation of the individual components, as viewed on the screen display, was protectible. The Court also found that a particular dialog box that enabled users to specify characteristics of kitchen items placed into a design was copyrightable as a compilation of factual information (based on unique selection and arrangement).

Individual components that were found to be in the public domain when not evaluated as part of a compilation

The sequence of sub-windows on the left side of the screen: information box, edit box, hierarchical catalog box, drag and drop listing, and search box.

The items in various dialog boxes.

“Save as Image” function.

A row of command categories on the top of the screen display (File, Edit, View, Place, Project, Design, Notes, Dimensions, Render, Preferences, Window, and Help).

The ability to add notes via a dialog box.

Three methods used to add a wall. One of the methods was consisted of using a menu command function; a second, pressing a button on a toolbar.

An “idiosyncratic” sequence of mouse clicks through which a user could draw walls (regardless of the novelty of the sequence).

The ability to terminate a wall sequence through a single left mouse click behind the most recent wall drawn.

An edit box and default room configuration users can use to create walls.

A submenu that allows a user to move, rotate, extrude, and delete a wall.

A dialog box that allows users to modify the appearance of a wall or a placement zone.

A drop and drag method of placing items such as cabinets; a method through which a user can select an item from a list and click “place”; and a method through which a user can input coordinates.