Copyright: “To protect or not protect?”
The Copyright Act refers to tools people use (rather than just look at, listen to, or read) as a “useful article.” Useful articles are generally not available for copyright. The design of clothing, furniture, automobiles, cell phones, speakers, and anything else which is useful (and typically not considered “art”) is not entitled to copyright protection.
In order to protect the artistic design of a useful article you need to get a design patent (in the United States) or a design registration (available in certain foreign jurisdictions). Design patents, however, must be both novel and non-obvious which is often a difficult standard for artistic designs. In addition, design patents registration is much more costly to obtain.
So are there exceptions which allow useful articles some protection under the Copyright Act? Of course — Congress makes the law, but lawyers make exceptions.
The Copyright Act defines useful article in 17 USC § 101:
“A “useful article” is an article having an intrinsic utilitarian function that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey information. An article that is normally a part of a useful article is considered a “useful article.”
