When Universal City Studios, Inc., and Amblin’ Entertainment, Inc., were producing the movie How to Make an American Quilt, they contracted with Barbara Brown, a well-known professional quilter. Brown agreed to design patterns for 15 quilt blocks for $50 per block. One of these designs was known as the Wedding Block. Under the contract, Brown was to retain the copyright to the designs, but Universal was authorized to use the design to create two copies of a prop quilt (known as the “The Life Before” quilt) for the movie.
In designing a second quilt for the movie, Universal’s technical consultant, Patricia McCormick, created a block design known as the Marriage Block. Both McCormick’s Marriage Block and Brown’s Wedding Block depict a scene with a black bird flying over a man and a woman holding hands. In the Marriage Block, however, the crow points downward, while the crow in the Wedding Block points upward. In addition, the Marriage Block includes a figure of the sun, but the Wedding Block does not. McCormick later wrote a book in which she stated: “I made [the Marriage Block] by using the pattern Barbara Brown had designed for . The Life Before quilt.. The block in this quilt is a duplication of the . block in The Life Before quilt.”
Brown sued for copyright infringement. Does McCormick’s Marriage Block design infringe Brown’s Wedding Block design? Why or why not?