TV & VIDEO - April 2, 1987

A federal judge dismissed a copyright infringement suit against the California Raisin Advisory Board Tuesday, ruling those dancing raisins in the national television commercials were not copies of humanized raisins created by former Fresno raisin packer Robert Reiter. U.S. Dist. Judge Robert Coyle ruled that Reiter failed to prove that the idea for his “Raisin People” characters was stolen by the raisin board. “When there are only a limited number of ways to create the image of humanized raisins, the copying must be identical or virtually identical to state a claim for copyright infringement,” Coyle said in his decision. Reiter said he plans to appeal.