NICHOLS v. UNIVERSAL PICTURES CORPORATION et al., 45 F.2d 119

Summary

Plaintiff alleged that the copyright in her play, concerning a marriage between a Jewish man and an Irish woman and the resulting difficulties between both families, was infringed by defendant's movie about the marriage of an Irish man and a Jewish woman, also focusing on differences between their families. The court affirmed the judgment for defendant, finding the two stories were different as to incident and character, and thus there was no infringement. As for plots, the only matter common to the two was a quarrel between a Jewish father and an Irish father, the marriage of their children, the birth of grandchildren, and a reconciliation. The court found such theme was only a part of plaintiff's ideas, and therefore was not copyrightable. Only four characters were common to both stories; two were "no more than stage properties," while there were numerous differences between representations of the other two.