# Stewart v. Abend

> Supreme Court of the United States · April 24, 1990 · 495 U.S. 207

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431990

## Case

- **Full name:** STEWART Et Al. v. ABEND, Dba AUTHORS RESEARCH CO.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** April 24, 1990
- **Citations:** 495 U.S. 207; 58 U.S.L.W. 4511; 14 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1614; 110 S. Ct. 1750; 109 L. Ed. 2d 184; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 2184
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by White
- **Judges:** O'Connor, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Kennedy, White, Stevens, Rehnquist, Scalia
- **Cited by:** 303 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431990

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that a licensed derivative work could not be reproduced or distributed absent rights to reproduce and distribute the portions of the pre-existing work that were incorporated into the derivative work
- recognizing that "fair use is more likely to be found in factual works than in fictional works” and that a “motion picture based on a fictional short story obviously falls into the latter category”
- stating that an author may copyright a novel that contains story elements found in the public domain but only his original contributions are entitled to protection
- discussing a guitar based upon the copyrighted symbol associated with the rock legend Prince

## Opinion text

Justice White,
concurring in the judgment.
Although I am not convinced, as the Court seems to be, that the decision in Miller Music Corp. v. Charles N. Daniels, Inc., 362 U. S. 373 (1960), was required by the Copyright Act, neither am I convinced that it was an impermissible construction of the statute. And because Miller Music, in my view, requires the result reached by the Court in this case, I concur in the judgment of affirmance.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431990. Public record. Not legal advice.