Are individual elements on a piece of clothing
protectable owing to their "unique placement, coordination,
and arrangement"?
LEGO has developed many branded sets over the decades, including
sets inspired from popular series and movies such as Star Wars,
Friends, Seinfeld, Home Alone and Harry Potter. However, its
recently released "Queer Eye – The Fab 5 Loft" set
based on Netflix's Queer Eye series, has led to a copyright
infringement lawsuit.
American artist James Concannon has initiated a copyright
infringement action against LEGO for its alleged unauthorized
copying and commercial exploitation of his work the "Concannon
Jacket". This action, which had been brought in December 2021
raises intriguing questions regarding the scale of protection of
individual elements on a piece of clothing owing to their
"unique placement, coordination, and arrangement".
