## Facts

- OddzOn Products, Inc. manufactured and marketed the “KOOSH ball,” a toy formed from numerous elastomeric filaments radiating from a core.
- OddzOn sought copyright registration to enable recordation with U.S. Customs and deter importation of lower-cost copies.
- The Register of Copyrights refused registration, concluding the ball’s visual character was a familiar spherical form and that its tactile qualities were functional rather than artistic.
- OddzOn sought judicial review of the refusal under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as permitted by the Copyright Act.
- The district court granted summary judgment for the Register, finding no abuse of discretion.
- OddzOn appealed to the D.C. Circuit.

## Issues

1. Whether, under APA review, the Register abused his discretion in refusing to register the KOOSH ball on the ground that its asserted creative elements were utilitarian or otherwise lacked protectable authorship.
2. Whether arguments that toys should not be treated as “useful articles” for separability analysis were properly before the court when not raised during the administrative registration process.

## Decision

- The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment upholding the refusal to register.
- The court held the Register’s determination was not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion under APA § 706(2)(A).
- The court declined to address the toy/not-useful-article argument because it was not presented in the registration process and thus was not preserved for review.
- The court emphasized that affirming a refusal to register does not preclude a later court, in an infringement action, from finding the work copyrightable.

## Legal Principles

- A denial of copyright registration is reviewed under the APA’s deferential standard: whether the agency action was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.
- Copyright protects “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works” only to the extent they contain original authorship.
- For a “useful article,” protection extends only to artistic features that (1) can be identified separately from, and (2) are capable of existing independently of, the article’s utilitarian aspects.
- Familiar shapes or basic geometric forms, without additional original authorship, may be insufficient to satisfy the minimal creativity requirement.
- Functional features, including tactile qualities that are part of the object’s utility and not separable, are not protected by copyright.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the Register’s refusal to register the KOOSH ball because the agency reasonably concluded that the toy’s appearance reflected a familiar form and that its distinctive feel was inseparable from its functional purpose; the decision resolved only whether the denial was within the Register’s discretion, not the toy’s ultimate copyrightability in infringement litigation.


OddzOn Prods., Inc. v. Oman, 924 F.2d 346 (D.C. Cir. 1991)