NIPC Law

Author Brianboru100   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikipedia University of Birmingham   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Miss Recorder Amanda Michaels) Ukoumunne v The University of Birmingham and other s [2020] EWHC 184 (IPEC) (5 Feb 2020) On 5 Dec 2019 Miss Recorder Michaels heard applications by the claimant for the transfer of her claim for copyright infringement, breach of confidence and other complaints to be transferred to the Queen's Bench Division and for an order for disclosure. The recorder also heard applications by the defendants to strike out the action under CPR 3.4 (2) (a) and summary judgment under CPR 24.2. The claimant is a graduate student of the University of Birmingham who has taught at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Greenwich. The first defendant is the University of Birmingham, the second, third, fourth and fifth defendants are academics at that University. The claiman...

Jane Lamber t S.10 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines a work of joint authorship as "a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not distinct from that of the other author or authors." However, it was held by Hazel Williamson QC sitting as a judge of the High Court in  Bamgboye v Reed  [2002] EWHC 2922 (QB), [2002] EWHC 2922, [2004] EMLR 5 and implied by the Court of Appeal in Brooker and Another v Fischer [2008] Bus LR 1123, [2008] FSR 26, [2008] EWCA Civ 287, [2008] EMLR 13 that joint ownership is not necessarily the same as equal ownership. Where two or more collaborators claim to have contributed to a copyright work the task of the judge is to discern the nature and extent of each party's contribution in order to determine his or her share of the copyright. This issue came before Miss Recorder Michaels in  Minder Music Ltd and Another v Sharples [2015] EWHC 1454...