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Artist behind duct-taped banana fends off US copyright lawsuit - Reuters

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  • Maurizio Cattelan sued by fellow artist who taped banana to wall
  • Court said Joe Morford failed to show copyright infringement

June 12 (Reuters) - Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose banana taped to a wall at the Art Basel Miami art fair sold for $120,000 in 2019, on Monday defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit by a fellow conceptual artist who claimed Cattelan plagiarized his work.

Joe Morford failed to show that Cattelan illegally copied his own 2000 art piece featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall, a Miami federal judge ruled, tossing the case before trial.

Cattelan's attorney Adam Cohen said they were very pleased with the decision. Morford, who represented himself in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cattelan said in a court filing that he meant for his work, "Comedian," to be "simple," "banal" and absurd.

Other works by Cattelan include a fully functioning solid-gold toilet named "America" that was valued at $5 million before being stolen from Britain's Blenheim Palace in 2019.

Morford sued Cattelan in 2020 for allegedly copying his piece "Banana and Orange," in which he duct-taped plastic versions of the fruits to green panels on a wall.

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola said Monday that there was insufficient evidence that Cattelan could have seen "Banana and Orange" before creating "Comedian." The judge also said Cattelan provided evidence that he created his work independently.

Most of the similarities between the two pieces were not protected by copyright law, Scola said, including the basic idea of "affixing a banana to a vertical plane using duct tape."

Differences, meanwhile, included "the banana used," "the angle at which it is placed," and "the exacting standards that Cattelan developed for Comedian's display," the judge said.

"To find otherwise would further limit the already finite number of ways in which a banana may be legally taped to a wall without infringing on Morford’s work," Scola said.

The case is Morford v. Cattelan, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. 1:21-cv-20039.

For Cattelan: Adam Cohen of Kane Kessler

For Morford: Pro se

Read more:

Man who ate $120,000 banana at art show says 'I'm not sorry'

Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal. He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney. Contact: 12029385713

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