On April 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in Dr. Seuss Enterprises vs. ComicMix LLC, a case where Dr. Seuss Enterprises argued that ComicMix’s Dr. Seuss-Star Trek mashup titled, “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!” infringes on the author’s classic children’s book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” The case addresses fair use and transformative use, which generally allows existing works to be copied, as long as the new work has enough changes to give it entirely new meaning. Bloomberg Law contacted Finnegan partner Margaret Esquenet for her thoughts on the case.
Margaret found the panel to be more skeptical of ComixMix than she expected, considering a recent trend in decisions supporting fair use. Given the importance of fair use in the entertainment industry, she suggested that if the losing party can articulate a circuit split on the definition of “transformative,” the case may spark interest from the Supreme Court of the United States.
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