NIPC Law

Florence Foster Jenkins  by G B Bain   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Justice Meade) Martin and another v Kogan [2021] EWHC 1242 (IPEC) (19 May 2021) Florence Foster Jenkins  seems to have been a rather good film about a less than good opera singer. The idea for the film seems to have been Julia Kogan's.  After a trial before Judge Hacon ( Martin and Another v Kogan [2017] EWHC 2927 (IPEC) (22 Nov 2017)) an appeal to the Court of Appeal ( Martin and another v Kogan [2019] EWCA Civ 164) and a retrial before Mr Justice Meade, the learned judge found that Ms Kogan was a joint author of the screenplay and that her contribution was 20% (see Martin and another v Kogan [2021] EWHC 24 (Ch) (11 Jan 2021)).  I discussed that litigation in  What constitutes Joint Copyright? Martin v Kogan   29 Dec 2017,  Joint Copyright - The Appeal in Martin and Another v Kogan   16 Oct 2019 and  Joint Copyright - The Retrial in Mart...

Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Floyd, Henderson and Jackson) Martin and another v Kogan   [2019] EWCA Civ 1645 Readers can judge from the video that  Florence Foster Jenkins  was about as good at singing as William McGonagall was at poetry  or, indeed, I am at ballet . In 2016 a film was made about her life which grossed receipts of US$44.3 million.  The screenplay was credited to one Nicholas Martin but his partner, Julia Kogan, claimed to be a joint author.  Mr Martin brought proceedings against Ms Kogan for a declaration that he was sole author of the work and owner of the copyright  subsisting in it. She counterclaimed for a declaration that she was a joint author and copyright owner and sought damages for infringement of her copyright.  The action and counterclaim came on for trial before His Honour Judge Hacon in Martin and another Kogan and others [2017] EWHC 2927 (IPEC) (22 Nov 2017),  His...