[1] The plaintiff, Interlego AG, sued the defendant, Tyco Industries, for copyright infringement of its Lego bricks.

[2] To extend protection under the Copyright Act, the plaintiff argued that it had made revisions to its design drawings, and that as such they comprised original artistic works.

[4] The only changes made to the drawings were alterations to some radii and to the dimensions of some elements:[1] Take the simplest case of artistic copyright, a painting or a photograph.

It takes great skill, judgement and labour to produce a good copy by painting or to produce an enlarged photograph from a positive print, but no-one would reasonably contend that the copy, painting, or enlargement was an "original" artistic work in which the copier is entitled to claim copyright.

[5] Thus the court held that the modifications that Interlego had made to its designs did not constitute an original work, and thus were not afforded copyright protection.