• The primary authority for the abstractions test is Judge Learned Hand’s opinion in Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d 119 (2d Cir. 1930). Although referred to as a “test,” it is not a bright-line test, but an approach to discerning the boundaries of protectable expression by isolating and comparing each level of abstraction in the two works, from the lowest (most detailed) to the highest (most conceptual). Cf. ABSTRACTION-FILTRATION-COMPARISON TEST; LOOK-AND-FEEL TEST. [Cases: Copyrights and Intellectual Property 53(1).]
abstractions test
Copyright. A means of comparing copyrighted material with material that allegedly infringes the copyright by examining whether the actual substance has been copied or whether the two works merely share the same abstract ideas.
