For those that are unaware, the opinion tells us that a “hookah” is a device for smoking tobacco.” It uses coals that cause tobacco to smoke so when a user inhales through a tube, the smoke travels through water, which is held in a container at the base of the hookah.
Although the hookah is believed to have originated in Persia over 500 years ago, and became popular in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, the California-based company Inhale Inc. only registered for a copyright in 2011. A few months later, Inhale sued Starbuzz, claiming that Starbuzz “willfully chose to reproduce, import, promote, advertise, and sell the infringing Hookah Water Container throughout the United States without the permission or consent from Inhale.”
Unfortunately for Inhale, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright ruled for Starbuzz in Los Angeles, finding that the shape of the water container was a “useful article” and not protectable. Under 17 U.S.C. § 101, a useful article is entitled to copyright protection if it “incorporates … sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the container.”
Finding that “the shape of a container is not independent of the container’s utilitarian function-to hold the contents within its shape-because the shape accomplishes the function,” the Ninth Circuit agreed, holding that “the district court correctly concluded that the shape of Inhale’s hookah water container is not copyrightable.”
Resource : http://www.ipbrief.net/2014/01/12/ninth-circuit-stomps-out-hookah-copyright-claim/
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