## Facts

- Magic Marketing, Inc. designed and marketed mass-mail advertising campaigns for businesses.
- Magic Marketing contracted with Mailing Services of Pittsburgh, Inc. to supply letters, forms, and envelopes for a direct-mail campaign.
- Mailing Services subcontracted some printing work to American Paper Products Co., which admitted supplying envelopes for several orders but denied supplying letters or forms.
- Magic Marketing alleged it held a valid copyright covering certain campaign materials, including envelopes, based on an application filed in 1985.
- Magic Marketing claimed Mailing Services sold copies of the materials to others and that American Paper manufactured and supplied infringing copies with knowledge of Magic Marketing’s rights.
- The envelopes at issue were conventional business envelopes with standard postal instructions; one featured a horizontal solid black stripe across the front with large white text reading “PRIORITY MESSAGE: CONTENTS REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION,” and another used similar attention-getting wording in a conventional layout.
- After earlier dismissals left only the copyright count pending against American Paper, American Paper moved for summary judgment, arguing the envelope designs were not copyrightable subject matter.

## Issues

1. Whether the envelope designs—standard envelopes with a black stripe and urgent, attention-getting wording—constituted copyrightable original works of authorship.
2. If the envelope designs were not copyrightable, whether American Paper could be liable for copyright infringement for manufacturing and supplying them.

## Decision

- The court granted American Paper’s motion for summary judgment in part.
- The court held the envelopes allegedly manufactured by American Paper were not entitled to copyright protection.
- Because there was no protectable subject matter in the envelope designs, the infringement claim against American Paper could not proceed as to those envelopes.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright protects original expression, not ideas, functional features, or commonplace elements lacking minimal creative authorship.
- Routine typographic, graphic, and textual devices used to attract attention in commercial mailings (e.g., stripes, bold lettering, ordinary urgent phrases) generally do not meet the minimal originality requirement when applied in a conventional manner.
- When the accused material is not copyrightable, an infringement claim fails as a matter of law, supporting summary judgment for a manufacturer or supplier of the material.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that conventional direct-mail envelope designs employing ordinary graphic accents and urgent slogans lacked the minimal originality required for copyright protection, and it entered partial summary judgment for the envelope supplier on that basis.


Magic Mktg., Inc. v. Mailing Servs. of Pittsburgh, Inc., 634 F. Supp. 769 (W.D. Pa. 1986)