O’Leary v. Mira Books, No. 08 CV 8, 2008 WL 3889867 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 18, 2008) (Gettleman, J.)
Judge Gettleman granted defendant’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss plaintiff’s copyright infringement and related state law claims. Plaintiff alleged that defendant – the author and publisher of the novel The Good Liar – infringed plaintiff’s copyright in plaintiff’s novel, What If, by publishing The Good Liar. The Court dismissed the copyright claim because plaintiff did not identify specific copied passages of her work or show substantial similarities between the works. What If was about a relationship between a paralegal and a rockstar. The Good Liar was about a counter-terrorist organization. The similarities between the works were references to common places or things – both were set in Chicago and had blonde-haired characters.
The Court also dismissed plaintiff’s state law unfair trade practices and unfair competition claims. Both were preempted by the Copyright Act because they were based upon publishing and marketing of the allegedly infringing novel.