Disney's EPCOT Center Escapes Copyright Claims

Case: Corwin v. Walt Disney Co. (11/02/06 - 11th Cir. No. 04-16554)

The One Sentence Summary: Copyright claims alleging copying of the design of EPCOT Center were properly dismissed on summary judgment where plaintiff had no admissible evidence of access to the copyrighted work and where plaintiff's experts compared unprotectable ideas or concepts of the works.


What They Were Fighting About: The district court had granted summary judgment against plaintiff's copyright claims that alleged that Walt Disney had copied the design for Epcot Center from a painting of a world village. The district court had excluded hearsay evidence that plaintiff attempted to use to show Disney's access to the painting, and had excluded expert reports that discussed similarities of unprotectable ideas rather than similarity of expression of those ideas.

Eleventh Circuit Holdings:

• The district court properly excluded hearsay evidence about Disney's access to the painting because the witnesses had no personal knowledge.
• The district court properly excluded the plaintiff's initial expert reports for improper methodology when they discussed similarities in unprotectable ideas, and also scenes a faire, elements that are indispensable or standard to treat a topic.
• Plaintiff's supplemental expert reports were properly excluded as late, and nevertheless failed to correct the problem of comparing uncopyrightable ideas and expressions.
• There was no admissible evidence of access to the copyrighted work, so summary judgment was proper.
• Plaintiff had not produced evidence of striking similarity between the works that could allow an inference of access and copying.
• In light of evidence of independent creation by defendants, summary judgment against plaintiff was proper.