NIPC Law

Author Friedrich-Johann-Justin-Bertuch    Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke)  Evans v John Lewis Plc and anothe r [2023] EWHC 766 (IPEC) (3 April 2023)    This was another copyright case that turned on whether copying could be proved.  The claimant was the self-published author of a children's book about a young dragon who could not help emitting fire. She claimed that a substantial part of her work had been copied in an advertising film that had been made by the second defendant for the retailer John Lewis Plc at Christmas 2019. That film featured another fire-emitting young dragon and was accompanied by a spin-off children's book called Excitable Edgar .  The claimant sued for copyright infringement. The creators of the film counterclaimed for a declaration of non-infringement and a publicity order.  The action and counterclaim came on for trial before Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke on 30 and 31 Jan 20...

Author Stacey Harris   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts, Intellectual Property List (Mr Justice Marcus Smith) Molavi v Gilbert and others    [2023] EWHC 646 (Ch) (23 March 2023) This was an application under  CPR 24.2 (1) (i) , by the writer, Virginia Gilbert, BBC Studios Production Ltd and the British Broadcasting Corporation for summary judgment in an action that had been brought against them by the screenwriter Dr Donna Molavi for copyright infringement and breach of confidence . They contended that the claimant had no real prospect of succeeding in her allegation that they had copied her storyline and other material for two episodes of the forensic pathology series Silent Witness .   Copying can be inferred where the following conditions are satisfied: there is an objective similarity between the original work and the alleged copy; and the author of the alleged copy had an opportunit...

Authors Ben Sutherland   Beyond My Ken   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 Source Wikimedia Commons     Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Zacaroli) Smith v Dryden and others [2021] EWHC 2277 (11 Aug 2021) This was a claim by Kelly-Marie Smith against Kesi Dryden and others for copyright infringement. The claimant wrote the words and music for a song called Can You Tell Me .  She claimed that copyright subsisted in those works and that those copyrights had been infringed by the performance, recording and publication of the song Waiting All Night.  The song had been written by James Newman and recorded by the band Rudimental .  The action came on for trial before Mr Justice Zacaroli between 20 and 26 July 2021. At para [86] of his judgment in Smith v Dryden and others [2021] EWHC 2277, the learned judge dismissed the claim. The judge referred to s.1 (1) and s.3 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 . He also cited para [33] of Judg...

Author  dozenist   Licence CC BY-SA 2,5   Source Wikimedia Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr James Mellor QC)  C.T. Dent Ltd v Atias and another [2020] EWHC 2720 (Ch) (14 Oct  2020)   This was an application for interim injunctive relief in an action for breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful interference with property, infringement of copyright, infringement of the sui generis database right and misuse of confidential information. The claimant was CT Dent Ltd  ("Dent"), a dental scanning company. The defendants were Kfir Yizhaq Atias ("Mr Atias") a former director of Dent and Dental Scan Ltd ("Scan"), a company that Mr Atias founded on 9 Sept 2020. The application came on before Mr James Mellor QC sitting as a judge of the High Court on 2 Oct 2020, He granted injunctions on 5 Oct 2020 and gave his reasons in  C.T. Dent Ltd v Atias and another [2020] EWHC 2720 (Ch)  on14 Oct 2020. The Facts Until 2 Sept 2020, Mr Atias was one of three directo...