Case: Copyrights/Similarity (N.D. Cal.)

Ken Gangbar Studio Inc. showed substantial similarity between its sculptures and those of Kevin Barry Fine Arts Associates. KGSI alleges that before outright copying its works, a Kevin Barry employee emailed KGSI, attaching photographs of the sculptures and asking about commissioning a similar piece. Copyright law protects the original selection, coordination, and arrangement of rocks and rock-shaped disks depicting the cyclical patterns of nature within large three-dimensional abstract wall sculptures. The similarities between the KGSI and KBFAA works extend far beyond just the mutual depiction of patterns of nature, as the works contain similar disc-shaped rocks in similar general arrangements, ...