Places a Seuss-Trek Mashup Will Go May Include Back to Court

The Ninth Circuit may be preparing to issue a ruling in a copyright fight over a Dr. Seuss-Star Trek mashup to clarify when use of an existing work is transformative enough to constitute fair use.

Transformative use generally allows copying an existing work if the new work changes its character to give it entirely new meaning. The case landed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after a lower court ruling that ComicMix LLC’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!” didn’t infringe Dr. Seuss’ classic because it sufficiently altered the character of the children’s book.

The appellate ...