Your fingerprint is unique, but it lacks copyright.
Copyright exists in works created by humans; not by mother nature.
Can you claim copyright in a fingerprint? This question was answered by the Review Board of the US Copyright Office when an Applicant (Manjit Dhaliwal) applied for copyright registration of the below artistic work.
Dhaliwal claimed individual elements — specifically the fingerprint patterns themselves and the “unique boundary” of the individual geometric shapes — are copyrightable. Dhaliwal argued that several creative decisions were in the design process qualify its work for copyright protection.
Before arriving at the decision, the Office discussed that the threshold of originality. The modicum of creativity required for a work to be original is fairly low. Yet, some works fail to meet even this threshold. Works should possess more than de minimis quantum of creativity. It is a settled judicial principle that there is no copyright in works where “the creative spark is utterly lacking or so trivial as to be virtually nonexistent”.The Office held that the elements of the applied work fell short of the originality threshold.
Of course, that a combination of unprotectable elements may qualify for copyright protection. But it was not so in the present case. A combination of unprotectable elements is eligible for copyright protection only if those elements are numerous enough and their selection and arrangement original enough that their combination constitutes an original work of authorship.
Finally, in determining copyrightability the below factors are not taken into consideration:
i)Attractiveness of a design/artwork
ii)Espoused intentions of the designer
iii)Design’s visual effect or its symbolism
iv)Time and effort taken by the designer took to create
v) Design’s commercial success in the marketplace
The Office held that the artwork lacked originality and so did the individual elements comprising the work such as fingerprints. On the issue of fingerprints, the Office held:
Copyright does not protect the design found on a human fingerprint. The Copyright Office will only register an original work of authorship created by a human being and not works produced by nature.
See here for the full decision.
