[ravel-bar-foo]

The relevant law here isn't patent law. It is copyright and trademark law. If you memorize a famous (recent) painting and recreate that as closely as you can, is it copyright violation or a transformative derivative work? I guess it depends on your process, intent, and fidelity. Oh, and on local laws.

[BaseballPhysics]

> is it copyright violation or a transformative derivative work?

Short answer: for any country participating in WIPO, yes it is.

Edit: And if you don't believe me, let's replace the word "painting" with the word "song":

> If you memorize a famous (recent) song and recreate that as closely as you can, is it copyright violation or a transformative derivative work?

Hopefully everyone here knows the answer is "absolutely yes!" which is why artists need permission to cover other people's music.

Now, yes, intent factors in, insofar as it affects a potential fair use defense. But that doesn't affect that status of the work, it only determines whether the action to violate copyright is defensible

This is how Google gets away with returning images in their search result, and why I can't just copy an image they return and use it without myself violating copyright.