On March 22, in a 6-2 decision the court backed Varsity Brands in its dispute with clothing company Star Athletica, holding that decorative elements of a cheerleading uniform may be protected by copyright law. Certiorari had been granted by the court to “resolve widespread disagreement” over the proper test for implementing section 101. In its decision, the court held that a feature incorporated into the design of a useful article is eligible for copyright protection if it satisfies two grounds. First, the feature must be able to be perceived as a 2D or 3D work of art separate from the useful article. Second, that feature would have to qualify as a protectable work—either on its own or fixed in some other tangible medium of expression—if it were imagined separately from the useful article into which it is incorporated.

Source: WIPR