Cory Van Rijn, Inc., (CVR) copyrighted various humanized raisin characters that it had developed. The California Raisin Advisory Board then developed Claymatic raisin characters for use in an advertising campaign. While both sets of characters had raisin bodies, the Board’s characters had detailed eyes with eyebrows and upper and lower lids; detailed mouths with upper and lower lips; detailed noses with nostrils; long and wire-like arms and legs; four-fingered, gloved hands; high-top basketball sneakers; and blue, red, and yellow sunglasses. CVR’s raisin characters had exaggerated, cartoon-like eyes; lipless mouths or no mouths at all; short and pudgy arms; no legs; three-fingered, gloveless hands; various types of shoes (none of which were high-top sneakers); and black, mirrored sunglasses. CVR conceded that the characters were not identical but argued that the characters were similar enough that an ordinary reasonable person would perceive the two groups as being “cousins in an extended raisin family.”
CVR sued the Board for copyright infringement. How should the court rule on CVR’s claim and why?