TANIKUMI v. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY et al

Filing 11

OPINION. Signed by Judge William J. Martini on 2/19/15. (gh, )

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

Civ. No. 14-5877

ISABELLA TANIKUMI,
Plaintiff,

OPINION

v.
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, et al.
Defendants.

WILLIAM J. MARTINI, U.S.D.J.
This is a copyright infringement case. The Court has jurisdiction pursuant to
28 U.S.C. § 1338, which gives the district court original jurisdiction over “any civil
action arising under any Act of Congress relating to . . . copyrights.” Id.; Levey v.
Brownstone Inv. Grp., LLC, No. CIV.A. 11-395 ES, 2012 WL 295718, at *1
(D.N.J. Feb. 1, 2012).
Pro se Plaintiff Isabella Tanikumi filed the Complaint alleging that that she
is the author of a self-published memoir, Yearnings of the Heart, and that
Defendants (or “Disney”) infringed her work in creating the animated motion
picture Frozen. Disney filed this motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of
Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Plaintiff did not oppose. For the reasons set forth below,
the motion is GRANTED.
I.

BACKGROUND

Yearnings of the Heart was originally copyrighted in 2010. A second print
was released in 2013, the same year that Disney released Frozen.
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Frozen’s credits state that it was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s
story, “The Snow Queen.” Frozen tells the story of two sisters, Elsa and Anna,
who are princesses of a make-believe Nordic kingdom called Arendelle. Arendelle
is surrounded by mountains and fjords. Elsa, the older sister, has magical abilities
to create ice and snow. As the children frolic in an indoor snowstorm of Elsa’s
creation, she accidentally zaps Anna in the head with a surge of cryokinetic energy,
causing an injury. Trolls are able to heal Anna. Nevertheless, the family decides
to isolate Elsa from the world and her sister until she learns to control her powers.
Later, Elsa and Anna’s parents die in a shipwreck.
When Elsa comes of age, she becomes the queen. Emissaries from far wide
come to her coronation. One of those emissaries is Prince Hans of the Southern
Isles, with whom Anna falls immediately in love. At the coronation ball, Anna
asks Elsa for permission to marry Hans. Elsa refuses. The sisters have a fight, and
in the course of doing so, Elsa accidentally exposes her powers to a crowd of
horrified onlookers. Embarrassed and accused of being a witch, Elsa flees to the
mountains to live alone in an ice castle. Inadvertently, she creates a permanent
winter in the kingdom during her flight.
Anna follows Elsa to the mountains. Anna asks Elsa to return to Arendelle
and end the winter. Elsa states that she does not know how to undo the spell and
will remain a recluse for Anna’s own safety. The sisters have a dispute, and Elsa
again accidentally hits Anna with a surge of magical energy, this time in the chest.
Anna’s hair turns white. The trolls advise that there is frost in her heart and that
she will eventually freeze to death. Only an act of true love can save her.
Eventually Anna and Elsa return to Arendelle, where it is expected that
Hans’s kiss will save Anna from death. But Hans refuses to kiss Anna, revealing
that the marriage was just part of a scheme to take Arendelle’s throne; he planned
to marry Anna, stage an accident for Elsa, and then assume the throne. Hans
leaves Anna for dead and goes to kill Elsa, but Anna intervenes and saves Elsa’s
life. This is the act of true love that saves Anna from freezing to death. The winter
spell breaks, and the sisters reconcile.
On July 22, 2014, Plaintiff sent a letter to Defendants stating, “Your movie
is a plagiarism of my book[].” (Declaration of Erin E. Turner (“Turner Decl.”),
Exhibit A). The “plagiarism summary” in her letter complains of 18 alleged
thematic similarities. None of these involve magic powers or icy Nordic
kingdoms.
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Yearnings of the Heart follows the trajectory of the author’s life and how she
emotionally overcame external tragedies and inner insecurities. The book begins
with the author growing up in Huaraz, a city in the mountains of Peru. Her family
survives a devastating earthquake. She suffers a kitchen accident that scars her
face and leaves her with emotional insecurities. She endures romantic jiltings
several times as a teenager. She moves to Lima to study nursing and lives with her
sister Laura, with whom she shares an intense sisterly bond. She dates a man she
ultimately rejects because of his alcoholism. Tragically, Laura dies when she is hit
by a drunk driver.
The author moves to the United States where she becomes a physical
therapist. She finds a dermatologist who is able to take the scars off her face. She
falls in love with a man named Eduardo who shows interest in her, but she feels
shy and makes up a false reason why she cannot be with him.
Eventually she meets a television producer, gets married, and has a family.
At the end of the book, she reconnects with Eduardo on Facebook. They have an
awkward meeting after which Eduardo unfriends her on Facebook. The book ends
with the author pondering the meaning of her connection with Eduardo.
II.

LEGAL STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) provides for the dismissal of a
complaint, in whole or in part, if the plaintiff fails to state a claim upon which
relief can be granted. As a general matter, a district court ruling on a motion to
dismiss may not consider matters extraneous to the pleadings. In re Burlington
Coat Factory Sec. Litig., 114 F.3d 1410, 1426 (3d Cir. 1997). However, “[A]
court may consider an undisputedly authentic document that a defendant attaches
as an exhibit to a motion to dismiss if the plaintiff’s claims are based on the
document.” See Pension Ben. Guar. Corp. v. White Consol. Indus., Inc., 998 F.2d
1192, 1196 (3d Cir. 1993)). Here, Defendants have submitted undisputedly
authentic copies of Yearnings of the Heart in paperback and Frozen on DVD. The
Court will review both.
In a case where the issue is whether one work is so similar to another as to
constitute copyright infringement, and both works can be considered at the
pleading stage, no factual discovery is typically required, and the case is ripe for
judgment on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. See Winstead v. Jackson, 509 F. App’x 139,
143 (3d Cir.) cert. denied, 134 S. Ct. 795 (2013) (citing Peter F. Gaito
Architecture, LLC v. Simone Development Corp., 602 F.3d 57, 64 (2d Cir. 2010)).
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On a motion to dismiss, the moving party bears the burden of showing that
no claim has been stated. Hedges v. United States, 404 F.3d 744, 750 (3d Cir.
2005). In deciding a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), a court must take all
allegations in the complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to the
plaintiff. See Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, Inc. v. Mirage Resorts Inc., 140
F.3d 478, 483 (3d Cir. 1998) (citing Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501 (1975)).
Moreover, where the plaintiff is proceeding pro se, the complaint is “to be liberally
construed,” and, “however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent
standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S.
89, 93-94 (2007).
Although a complaint need not contain detailed factual allegations, “a
plaintiff’s obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitlement to relief’ requires
more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a
cause of action will not do.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007).
Thus, the factual allegations must be sufficient to raise a plaintiff’s right to relief
above a speculative level, such that it is “plausible on its face.” See id. at 570; see
also Umland v. PLANCO Fin. Serv., Inc., 542 F.3d 59, 64 (3d Cir. 2008).
“[D]etermining whether a complaint states a plausible claim is context-specific,
requiring the reviewing court to draw on its experience and common sense.”
Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 663-64 (2009). A claim has “facial plausibility
when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the
reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.”
Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). While “[t]he plausibility
standard is not akin to a ‘probability requirement’ . . . it asks for more than a sheer
possibility.” Id. at 678.
III.

DISCUSSION

The Plaintiff’s Complaint will be dismissed because the similarities she
alleges between her memoir and Frozen are not substantial. The two stories are
entirely different.
To state an actionable claim for copyright infringement, Plaintiff must plead
facts making it plausible “[1] that the defendant[s] had access to the copyrighted
work and [2] that the original and allegedly infringing works share substantial
similarities.” Kay Berry, Inc. v. Taylor Gifts, Inc., 421 F.3d 199, 207-08 (3d Cir.
2005). “Substantial similarity,” turns on two considerations: “(1) whether the
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defendant copied from the plaintiff’s work and (2) whether the copying, if proven,
went so far as to constitute an improper appropriation.” Id. at 208. The test of
what constitutes an “improper appropriation” is “the response of the ordinary lay
person” to the two works. Id.
Plaintiff only alleges that Disney plagiarized broad thematic elements of her
memoir. Most of the 18 similarities in her letter to Disney are tenuous at best. The
closest similarities are the generic themes of intense sisterly love and the
concealment of a personal characteristic of which the protagonist is ashamed.
There are also some minor thematic similarities involving the moon’s connection
to romance, mountainous settings, and betrayal by a lover.
Copyright law protects expression, not ideas. Kay Berry, Inc. v. Taylor
Gifts, Inc., 421 F.3d 199, 208 (3d Cir. 2005). (“It is a fundamental premise of
copyright law that an author can protect only the expression of an idea, but not the
idea itself.”). “[G]eneral plot ideas and themes lie in the public domain and are not
protected by copyright law.” Winstead v. Jackson, No. CIV.A.10-5783 SRC, 2011
WL 4407450, at *2 (D.N.J. Sept. 20, 2011) aff’d, 509 F. App’x 139 (3d Cir. 2013).
The themes that both appear in Frozen and Yearnings of the Heart are
expressed in vastly different ways. The setting, plot, and characters have no close
similarities. No lay person could find that Disney improperly appropriated from
Yearnings of the Heart because copyright law does not protect the generic,
thematic elements of Tanikumi’s work.
IV.

CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above, the Defendants’ motion to dismiss is
GRANTED. An appropriate order follows.

/s/ William J. Martini
______________________________
WILLIAM J. MARTINI, U.S.D.J.
Date: February 19, 2015

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