Artist’s $3.6 Million Award Vacated over Compilation Issue (1)

A district court used the wrong standard to find that an illustrator was entitled to separate copyright infringement awards for each of 33 drawings, a federal appeals court said.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin should have analyzed whether the works were individually protectable or part of two compilations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said. The appellate panel said it didn’t have enough information to decide, and remanded the question to the district court.

The Aug. 21 opinion shows that courts haven’t adopted a consistent test to decide whether works are separate ...