The well-known song says, "a kiss is just a kiss," but
the Ninth Circuit says that some kisses are "thin" and
some are "broad," and on that your copyright lawyer can
rely. As time goes by.
The court got into analyzing kisses through a case, Sophia
& Chloe v. Brighton Collectibles, involving designs of
"Buddha's Kiss" earrings. A Buddha's Kiss earring
has three elements: a teardrop-shaped earring, the henna symbol for
the word "kiss," and the image of the Buddha. As you
might expect, the producer of one Buddha's Kiss earring sued
the producer of another, claiming copyright infringement.
Each of the parties' earrings contained those three
elements. But was that similarity enough to prove copyright
infringement? The court said it wasn't. Because every
Buddha's Kiss earring must contain those three elements, that
means that the combination of those three elements is the
"idea" of the earring. And copyright law does not protect
ideas, but merely particular creative
