Yu Zhang v. Heineken N.V. et al

Filing 44

JUDGMENT by Judge Gary A. Feess: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the Register's Motion for Summary Judgment is granted and judgment is hereby entered in favor of the Register, (bp)

NO JS-6

1 ANDRÉ BIROTTE JR. United States Attorney 2 LEON W. WEIDMAN Assistant United States Attorney 3 Chief, Civil Division ANOIEL KHORSHID (Cal. Bar No. 223912) 4 Room 7516 Federal Building 300 North Los Angeles Street 5 Los Angeles, California 90012 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] 6 Email: [e-mail] 7 Attorneys for Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights 8 of the United States Library of Congress 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 YU ZHANG, Plaintiff, v. HEINEKEN N.V., et al., Defendants. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA WESTERN DIVISION ) Case No. CV 08-06506 GAF (RCx) ) ) ) ) JUDGMENT ) ) ) ) Honorable Gary A. Feess

This copyright infringement action arises out of the alleged reproduction of certain Chinese artwork. Plaintiff Yu Zhang ("Zhang") alleges that Defendants conspired to violate his exclusive rights in a work entitled "Traditional Chinese Painting." The artwork consists of four separate Chinese characters, to which Zhang also asserts exclusive rights. Although Zhang previously applied to register these works, the United States Copyright Office ("Copyright Office") denied his applications. Zhang filed suit against a number of infringing defendants, and asserts a single claim against Marybeth Peters, acting in her official capacity as the Register of Copyrights of the United States Library of Congress (the "Register"). Zhang specifically requests that this Court direct the Register to issue a certificate of

1 copyright for each of the relevant works. 2 On April 16, 2010, the Register filed her Motion for Summary Judgment. See 3 Docket No. 38. The Court issued its Order granting the Register's Motion on May 12, 4 2010. See Docket No. 41. In that Order, the Court also vacated the hearing set for 5 May 17, 2010. See id. 6 As detailed in the Court's Order, because the drawings are merely ornate 7 depictions of various Chinese words, the Court concludes that Zhang's works lack the 8 minimum amount of originality to warrant copyright protection. Applicable copyright 9 regulations preclude registration of words or phrases, even if they are created with 10 artistic detail or decoration. The Court also concludes that the Register's decision to 11 deny Zhang's applications was reasonable, and that her ultimate decision requires 12 substantial deference. In light of the deference given to the Register's decision, the 13 considerable legal authority supporting that decision, and Zhang's failure to file any 14 opposition to the present motion: 15 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the 16 Register's Motion for Summary Judgment is granted and judgment is hereby entered 17 in favor of the Register. 18 19 20 21 22 DATED: June 18, 2010 Presented by: Honorable Gary A. Feess UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

ANDRÉ BIROTTE JR. 23 United States Attorney LEON W. WEIDMAN 24 Assistant United States Attorney Chief, Civil Division 25 //s// 26 ANOIEL KHORSHID Assistant United States Attorney 27 Attorneys for Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights 28 of the United States Library of Congress. -2-