Situation Management Systems v. ASP Consulting Group

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding that the plaintiffs work “does not constitute original expression because it is merely a summary of common-sense communication skills”
• finding that “the structure or essence of SMS’s works is not copyrightable” because, unlike a work of fiction that has a plot and characters, they merely discuss processes and ideas
• finding the plaintiffs works largely unprotected by copyright because “they focus on concepts and teach a noncopy-rightable process”
• describing SMS’s works as “fodder for sardonic workplace humor” and as “aggressively vapid”
• “Such de minimis duplication does not amount to infringement.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).