Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc.
Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc. 109 F.3d 1394 (9th Cir. 1997) is a copyright lawsuit where the court determined if a copy of an original work's artistic style, plot, themes, and certain key character elements qualified as fair use. Penguin Books published a book titled The Cat NOT in the Hat! A Parody by Dr. Juice that use the artistic style, themes and characteristics of Dr. Seuss books to tell the story of the O. J. Simpson murder case. Dr. Seuss Enterprises accuse the publisher of copyright and trademark infringement. Background Dr. Seuss Enterprises owns the trademarks and copyrights author Dr. Seuss' publications. Dr. Seuss authored and published 47 books that are widely distributed and contains characteristics such as simple rhyming and repetitive language, with characters that are recognizable to children. This includes the book The Cat in the Hat, first published in 1957 with the main character being "the Cat" who wears a red and white striped stovepipe hat, which Seuss owns the trademark to. Dr. Seuss also owns copyright registrations for several books containing the Cat. Alan Katz and Chris Wrinn wrote and illustrated The Cat NOT in the Hat! A Parody by Dr.