Oscars organisers denied copyright for statuette logo
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has been refused copyright protection for its logo featuring the Oscar statuette.
The Academy’s logo is a triangle with a white cut-out in the shape of the famous Oscar statuette, given to prize winners at the film industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
AMPAS registered the statuette itself with the US Copyright Office as far back as 1941, meaning the design of the statue is a copyright-protected work.
In 2017, the Academy filed to register the logo as a derivative work which is protectable in and of itself.
But the Copyright Office refused protection for the logo on the grounds that it did not add enough new protectable elements to the already-registered statuette.
This decision has now been affirmed after lawyers for the Academy asked the Copyright Office to consider.
In a letter sent to AMPAS’ lawyers earlier this month, the Copyright Office said that the logo was “insufficiently creative”, and “lacks the authorship necessary to support a copyright claim”.
“The Oscar silhouette is oriented along the black triangle’s line of symmetry, and the trapezoid shape is placed where a statue base would be expected. These elements are displayed in a standard black and white colour combination, which is a familiar pairing,” the letter said.
It added: “Here, the new contributions are too few and their use too standard to make the work distinctive from the pre-existing Oscar silhouette in a meaningful way.”
It has been reported that the 2021 Oscars could be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The virus has caused significant disruption to the film industry, delaying film releases or forcing them to be distributed solely through digital channels.
This week, a UK trade group representing copyright owners warned that online piracy had spiked during the country’s lockdown period, and threatened revenues for a film industry increasingly reliant on digital distribution.
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