Mannington Wins Its Appeal in Copyright Infringement Case

Salem, NJ, April 30, 2015—Mannington Mills won its appeal of a district court’s grant of summary judgment against Mannington in a copyright infringement case involving Home Legend LLC. The judgment affirms that Mannington’s Glazed Maple design was found to have sufficient creativity to warrant copyright protection.

The judgment was handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama, Mannington’s designs for laminate Glazed Maple flooring were found to be “sufficiently original to qualify for copyright protection.”

The Court held that “Mannington did not simply copy a naturally occurring thing,” as Home Legend contends, but rather “it transformed the elements found in nature into the expression of its rustic floor idea.”

In addition, the Court ruled that the design was purely decorative and independent of the function of the flooring, and that Mannington was not attempting to copyright a process for creating its design but rather the design itself.