[2] The subject of copyright protection under the Copyright Act

[3] The case affirming the judgment of the court below that the letter education card, which is a Korean language education teaching material, and the method of subsequent education adopted thereby cannot be protected as a work

[2] The copyrighted work protected under the Copyright Act is a creative expression of ideas or emotions obtained by people's mental efforts regarding learning and arts. As such, the copyrighted work protected under the Copyright Act is a creative expression form that specifically expresses ideas, emotions by words, letters, sound, color, etc., and its contents, i.e., the idea and appraisal of ideas or theories, etc., which are expressed, cannot be a work as a matter of principle, except in the case of novels, novels, etc., even if they have originality or originality.

[3] The case affirming the judgment of the court below which held that the selection or arrangement of the letter education card, which is a subject of the Korean language education teaching teaching material, cannot be seen as an compilation work since it is not creative, and that it is a successive educational method adopted by the said Korean language education teaching material is merely an idea and thus cannot be protected as a copyrighted work

A. As to the first ground for appeal

If compilations are to be protected as compilation works, creativity must be created in an act of compiling compilations by collecting, classifying, selecting, and arranging materials with a certain policy or purpose (see Supreme Court Decision 92Do569, Sept. 25, 1992). Since copyrighted works protected under the Copyright Act should be creative expressions of ideas or emotions obtained by people's mental effort regarding learning and arts, the copyright protection is a creative expression form that specifically expresses externally through ideas, emotions, letters, sound, color, etc. The ideas and emotions of ideas, theories, etc., which are expressed, are not protected under the Copyright Act because they cannot be copyrighted as a matter of principle except in the case of story, novel, etc. (see Supreme Court Decision 79Do1482, Dec. 28, 197; Supreme Court Decision 300Da3984, Aug. 39, 198; 300Da3979, Aug. 39, 190, etc.).

According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below determined that the applicant's above recognition judgment of the court below is just, and there are no errors such as the theory of lawsuit in the judgment below, since the applicant's selection or arrangement of the letter education card, which is its material, cannot be seen as a compilation work, and the applicant's successive method of education is merely an idea and cannot be protected as a work. In light of related evidence and records and the above legal principles, the judgment of the court below is justified, and there are no errors in the law such as the theory of lawsuit. The argument is without merit.

B. Regarding ground of appeal No. 2

Examining the reasoning of the judgment below in comparison with records, the court below is just in holding that since the character education card of the applicant and the letter education card of the respondent's decision are the same as, and similar to, the character, language, color, and scam of the applicant's materials, it cannot be deemed that there is a substantial similarity between the two works because the difference between each picture, the form of characters, and colors is clearly different from each other in terms of the expression, so the respondent cannot be deemed to have infringed on the copyright of the above letter education card which is the applicant's work of art, and there is no error of law such as the theory of lawsuit in the judgment of the court below. There is no reason to

2. Therefore, the appeal shall be dismissed and all costs of appeal shall be assessed against the losing party. It is so decided as per Disposition by the assent of all participating Justices.

Justices Kim Chang-chul (Presiding Justice)