## Facts

- Judi Boisson and her company designed and sold two alphabet quilts, “School Days I” and “School Days II,” and obtained copyright registrations.
- The quilts depicted capital letters of the alphabet in order within square blocks arranged in rows and columns, with the final row using picture blocks; the quilts used varied fabrics and colors with a white border and colored edging.
- Banian, Ltd. and its owner/president, Vijay Rao, imported and sold three alphabet quilts made in India (“ABC Green Version I,” “ABC Green Version II,” and “ABC Navy”).
- The imported quilts also depicted the alphabet in square blocks and shared compositional features, including a five-by-six block format and similar stitching patterns.
- Plaintiffs sued in the Eastern District of New York for copyright infringement.
- After a bench trial, the district court held defendants’ quilts were not substantially similar to plaintiffs’ protectable expression and dismissed the infringement claims.
- Plaintiffs appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether plaintiffs’ quilts contained protectable expression beyond unprotectable elements such as the alphabet, basic shapes, and standard quilting techniques.
2. Whether the district court misapplied the “more discerning” substantial similarity test by focusing too narrowly on isolated details rather than the protectable selection, coordination, and arrangement and the overall aesthetic impression.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
- The court held plaintiffs’ copyrights covered more protectable expression than the district court recognized, including the selection and arrangement of elements.
- The court concluded that arranging the alphabet in a five-by-six block format on a quilt reflected at least a minimal degree of creativity and was copyrightable.
- The court held the district court’s substantial-similarity analysis was unduly narrow because it failed to account for protectable arrangement and the overall look and feel created by the arrangement of elements.
- The court found infringement in some instances and remanded for determination of remedies on the claims for which infringement was found.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright protection may extend to an original selection, coordination, and arrangement of elements even when many constituent elements are in the public domain.
- The originality threshold is low; a minimal degree of creativity in arrangement can make a visual work protectable.
- When applying a “more discerning” substantial similarity test, courts must filter out unprotectable elements but still evaluate protectable expression, including protectable combinations and arrangement.
- Substantial similarity in visual works may be shown by similarity in the overall look and feel attributable to protectable arrangement, not merely by matching isolated details.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that the quilts’ arrangement of public-domain components could be protected expression and that substantial similarity required evaluation of that protectable arrangement and resulting overall aesthetic impression, reversing dismissals where infringement was shown and remanding for remedies.


Boisson v. Banian, Ltd., 273 F.3d 262 (2d Cir. 2001)