Anas Osama Ibrahim Abdin v. CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Docket Number: 19-3160
Judge: Chin
Opinion Date: August 17, 2020

The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s third amended complaint for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), alleging that defendants violated the Copyright Act by copying creative aspects from his unreleased science fiction videogame, including his use of a tardigrade — a microscopic animal — traveling in space, in their television series Star Trek: Discovery.

Even assuming that actual copying occurred, the court agreed with the district court that plaintiff failed to plausibly allege substantial similarity between protectible elements of his videogame and elements from Discovery. The court explained that, overall, the presence of Ripper the tardigrade in Discovery is minimal, as it only appears in three episodes. Therefore, after extracting the unprotectible elements from plaintiff’s videogame — the scientific facts, general ideas, science fiction themes constituting scènes à faire, and generalized character traits — the court held that the videogame and Discovery are not substantially similar because the protectible elements are markedly different. View “Anas Osama Ibrahim Abdin v. CBS Broadcasting Inc.” on Justia Law

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