The Yankee Candle Company, Inc. v. The Bridgewater Candle Company, LLC

How courts have described this case

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

• noting that where the merger doctrine applies, plaintiffs bear “the heavy burden” of establishing “near identity” of the works at issue
• stating that there must be “probative similarity” between the two works to infer actual copying
• noting that determining substantial similarity “is not so simple a task ... as a strict visual comparison of the two items” because “only the protected expression is relevant” to the inquiry (internal quotation marks omitted
• noting the “key theoretical foundation of copyright law[] that [ijdeas cannot be copyrighted” (internal quotation marks omitted
• affirming summary judgment based on lack of substantial similarity where validity of the copyright was undisputed and actual copying was assumed
• rejecting copyright protection for \collection of common geometric shapes with a particular photographic technique\ on candle labels

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).