Discussion:
What is the name of your state? Arizona
A company uses letters of the alphabet combined with drawings of animals and various body motions to teach phonics to children. For example, a lower case (a) with a picture of an alligator, the motion that accompanies this picture is opening and closing one's hands like an alligator mouth and saying..'a a alligator'.. There is a picture for every letter of the alphabet along with an assigned animal and motion. I want to do a similar phonics teaching system (and sell it) using letters combined with different words (no animals used as in above system) and using hand or body motions that are different from the above system. In my opinion, as long as I am not copying the artwork, or idea of specifically using animals in combination with letters, it should be o.k. What I would be copying is a teaching method (the idea of body movement to help memory or learning retention), which from what I have read, would not be copyrightable. Would I be infringing? Opinions, please.
Answer:
What is the name of your state? Arizona
A company uses letters of the alphabet combined with drawings of animals and various body motions to teach phonics to children. For example, a lower case (a) with a picture of an alligator, the motion that accompanies this picture is opening and closing one's hands like an alligator mouth and saying..'a a alligator'.. There is a picture for every letter of the alphabet along with an assigned animal and motion. I want to do a similar phonics teaching system (and sell it) using letters combined with different words (no animals used as in above system) and using hand or body motions that are different from the above system. In my opinion, as long as I am not copying the artwork, or idea of specifically using animals in combination with letters, it should be o.k. What I would be copying is a teaching method (the idea of body movement to help memory or learning retention), which from what I have read, would not be copyrightable. Would I be infringing? Opinions, please.
Whether or not what you are doing would be infringing is a question you should ask a local attorney with experience in copyright, who can review all of the relevant facts. While you are correct that a teaching method cannot, itself, be copyrighted, there is more to copyright than exact duplication, and there could be a "look and feel" problem under copyright or trademark law to consider, which is why a local attorney, who can review the actual designs themselves, would be your best bet.