Portal:Review Board of the United States Copyright Office

“ Under the Copyright Act, a work can be registered if it is an "original work [] of authorship." 17 U.S.C. § 102 (a) . As the Supreme Court has explained, the statute requires that works contain "some minimal degree of creativity" to qualify for copyright protection. See Feist Publ'ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 345 (1991) . Though only a "modicum" of creativity is necessary, copyright will not protect works in which "the creative spark is utterly lacking or so trivial as to be virtually nonexistent." ”

“ Therefore, none of the Work's individual elements are protectable by copyright.
Viewing the Work as a whole, the selection, coordination, and arrangement of these unprotectable elements do not rise to the level of creativity necessary for copyright registration. While a work consisting entirely of unprotectable elements may be registered if "those elements have been selected, coordinated, and/or arranged in a sufficiently creative manner," the Work does not exhibit such creativity. ”

“ In a letter dated September 9, 2021, WWE requested that the Office reconsider its initial refusal to register the Work. Letter from Christopher M. Verdini to U.S. Copyright Office (Sept. 9, 2020) ("First Request") . After reviewing the Work in light of the points raised in the First Request, the Office re-evaluated the claims and again concluded that the Work's "individual elements contained within Historic Block Logo do not exhibit a sufficient amount of original and creative authorship to support a copyright registration." ”