Muneefa Abdullah v. the Walt Disney Company;

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
MUNEEFA ABDULLAH,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY; et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
No. 16-55888
D.C. No.
2:15-cv-09581-SVW-JPR
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Stephen V. Wilson, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted February 8, 2018**
Pasadena, California
Before: CALLAHAN and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges, and BATAILLON,***
District Judge.
Muneefa Abdullah appeals from the district court’s judgment in favor of The
Walt Disney Company in this copyright action. We have jurisdiction pursuant to
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
*** The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, United States District Judge for
the District of Nebraska, sitting by designation.
FILED
MAR 8 2018
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

-- 1 of 2 --

2
28 U.S.C. § 1291. After a careful examination of each alleged similarity between
The Snow Princess and Frozen, the district court concluded that the two works are
not substantially similar under the extrinsic test as a matter of law. We agree and
therefore affirm for the reasons stated by the district court in its well-reasoned
decision granting The Walt Disney Company’s motion to dismiss.1
AFFIRMED.
1 For the first time on appeal, Abdullah contends that the witch is the princess’s
subconscious. Even if that were apparent from the text of The Snow Princess,
which it is not, the outcome is the same because it is an entirely different
expression of the idea of a princess with ice powers than presented in Frozen. See
Funky Films, Inc. v. Time Warner Entm’t Co., 462 F.3d 1072, 1078–79 (9th Cir.
2006) (rejecting appellants’ “attempt to link up” the main characters in the works
because the expression of the generic traits of those characters was different).

-- 2 of 2 --