Fuller held patents related to stage lighting. They including chemical compounds for creating color gel and the use of chemical salts for lluminescent lighting, and garments (stage costumes US Patent 518347). She tried to create a patent of her "Serpentine Dance" to stop imitators from using her choreography or claiming to be her. Fuller gave a written description of her dance to the United States Copyright Office; however, a US Circuit Court judge denied Fuller's request for an injunction. The "Serpentine Dance" told no story and was therefore not eligible for copyright protection. At that time dance was only protected if it qualified as "dramatic" and Fuller's dance was too abstract for this qualification. The precedent set by Fuller's case remained in place from 1892 until 1976, when Federal Copyright Law extended protection to choreographic works.