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Dr. Seuss lawsuit over Star Trek-themed parody is dismissed
A US judge dismissed a lawsuit by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publication of a "Star Trek"-themed book parodying the Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!".
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Dr Seuss' books on a BookBench sculpture; one of 50 celebrating London's literary heritage with famous book titles on July 5, 2014 at various locations across London. (Shutterstock/Ron Ellis)
It may not be logical, but it is fair use.
A U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publication of a Star Trek-themed book parodying the Seuss book Oh, the Places You'll Go!.
US District Judge Janis Sammartino in San Diego said ComicMix's crowdfunded Oh, the Places You'll Boldly Go! made fair use of the 1990 Seuss book, and did not infringe copyrights of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which oversees the author's estate.
Sammartino said while ComicMix borrowed heavily from Seuss, Boldly was a "highly transformative" work, and any harm to the market for Seuss' works was speculative.
"We're ecstatic," Michael Licari, a lawyer for ComicMix, said in an interview. "This is a big win for the First Amendment." He said his client looks forward to publishing Boldly, pending a possible appeal.
In a statement, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it may appeal.
It said it strongly disagreed with the fair use conclusion, and that Sammartino downplayed or ignored evidence that ComicMix "intended to preempt the important graduation market" for the Seuss original and would likely cause "real market harm."
Read also: First Dr. Seuss museum opens this summer
Dr. Seuss was the pen name of Theodor Geisel, who died in 1991.
The plaintiff objected to what it called ComicMix's "slavish copying," including cover art mimicking the original's colored rings, but in the shape of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the "Star Trek" spaceship.
Sammartino, however, likened the case to when Paramount Pictures superimposed the head of actor Leslie Nielsen atop a nude, pregnant woman's body for a poster for the 1994 movie Naked Gun 33-1/3: The Final Insult.
In 1998, a federal appeals court in Manhattan agreed with Annie Leibovitz that the poster borrowed more than necessary from her portrait of a nude, pregnant actress Demi Moore for a 1991 Vanity Fair cover, but was a parody protected as fair use.
Sammartino said that, in contrast, ComicMix took "no more from the copyrighted works than was necessary" for its purposes, and Dr. Seuss Enterprises could not claim a copyright over any disc-shaped item tilted at a particular angle.
Last July, the Manhattan appeals court rejected Dr. Seuss Enterprises' separate challenge to a lewd and profane theatrical parody of the Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. A lower court judge had said that parody was also fair use.
