## Facts

- Carol Barnhart Inc. designed and sold four life-size mannequin display forms consisting of partial human torsos used by retailers to display clothing.
- The forms were made of expandable white styrene, lacked necks, arms, and backs, and had hollow backs intended to hold excess fabric when garments were fitted.
- Two torsos were unclad for displaying shirts and sweaters; the other two were sculpted with shirts for displaying sweaters and jackets.
- Barnhart’s president created an initial mold and then an aluminum production mold; the forms achieved significant commercial interest at trade shows.
- Barnhart registered the forms with the Copyright Office as sculptural works.
- Economy Cover Corporation, after learning of Barnhart’s forms and observing no copyright notice on the forms or promotional materials, arranged to produce four forms it conceded were copied and substantially similar to Barnhart’s.

## Issues

1. Whether the mannequin torso display forms are copyrightable “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works” or uncopyrightable “useful articles” under 17 U.S.C. § 101.
2. Whether any artistic features of the forms are physically or conceptually separable from the forms’ utilitarian function of displaying clothing.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Economy.
- The court held the torso forms were “useful articles” designed to display garments.
- The court found no physically separable sculptural elements because the forms’ sculpted features were part of the article itself.
- The court rejected conceptual separability on these facts, concluding the aesthetic and functional aspects were inextricably intertwined.
- Judge Newman dissented, arguing the sculptural aspects could be conceptually separable from the display function.

## Legal Principles

- A “useful article” is not protected as a sculptural work unless it contains pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that (1) can be identified separately from, and (2) are capable of existing independently of, the article’s utilitarian aspects. 17 U.S.C. § 101.
- Physical separability requires an artistic element that can be removed from the useful article without destroying the article’s utilitarian identity.
- Conceptual separability is absent where the article’s aesthetic design choices are integral to achieving the utilitarian function, rather than identifiable as independent artistic expression.
- Copyright does not extend to the overall shape of a useful article merely because it is aesthetically pleasing.

## Conclusion

Because the mannequin torso forms were useful articles and their sculptural appearance could not be separated—physically or conceptually—from their function of displaying clothing, the forms were not copyrightable, and judgment for the alleged copier was affirmed.


Carol Barnhart Inc. v. Econ. Cover Corp., 773 F.2d 411 (2d Cir. 1985)