uncopyrightable

U1N1C3O1P3Y4R1I1G2H4T1A1B3L1E1

adjective

Ineligible for copyright.

Scrabble 28

Meanings

adjectiveuncopyrightable (not comparable)
  1. not comparablecopyrightIneligible for copyright.

    […] The four criteria that Congress, courts, and theorists have traditionally employed to distinguish the copyrightable from the uncopyrightable are: […]

    1984, MJ Touponse, “Application of Copyright Law to Computer Operating System Programs: Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin”, in Connecticut Law Review, page 665
    2 more examples

    […] Keeton, however, resolved that it was the idea/expression dichotomy that forms the boundary line between the copyrightable and the uncopyrightable, […]

    1994, R VerSteeg, “Jurimetric Copyright: Future Shock for the Visual Arts”, in Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, page 125

    […] to examine those director contributions that help create that overall feel and apply Judge Hand's abstractions test to filter out the uncopyrightable from the copyrightable […]

    2001, R Amanda, “Elvis Karaoke Shakespeare and the Search for a Copyrightable Stage Directions”, in Arizona Law Review, page 677
noununcopyrightable (plural uncopyrightables)

plural uncopyrightables

  1. That for which no one can obtain copyright.

    Intrinsic state doctrines are further condemned by Sears and Compco’s second principle for their tendency to extend the equivalent of copyright protection to statutory uncopyrightables.

    1969 January, Paul Goldstein, “Federal System Ordering of the Copyright Interest”, in Columbia Law Review, volume 69, number 1, Columbia Law Review Association, Inc., page 71
    1 more example

    1974 April, Dane J. Durham, “Goldstein v. California: Validity of State Copyright under the Copyright and Supremacy Clauses”, in Hastings Law Journal volume 25 (1973–4), page 1201, Indeed, Judge Hand himself admitted that the harshness of a complete denial of protection for statutory uncopyrightables was a persuasive element in the alternative line of thought.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Englishcopy
  9. Englishright
  10. Englishcopyright
  11. Englishcopyrightable
  12. Englishuncopyrightable

From un- + copyrightable.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

uncopyrightable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uncopyrightable

MLA

“uncopyrightable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uncopyrightable. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “uncopyrightable,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uncopyrightable.

Source: uncopyrightable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.