A former employee of the Secret Service had written a book (‘Spycatcher’). The AG sought several remedies including damages against a newspaper for serialising it. Dillon LJ said: ‘It has seemed to me throughout the hearing of this appeal that there could have been strong arguments for saying that, as Mr. Wright wrote and published Spycatcher in breach of his duty of secrecy to the Crown and was only able to do so by the misuse of secret information which had come to him in the course of his employment as an officer in the Security Service of the Crown, the copyright in Spycatcher belongs in equity to the Crown and is held on a constructive trust for the Crown with whatever consequences may follow from that. Since, however, the Crown has in the most explicit terms disclaimed any reliance on equitable copyright, I put such thoughts out of mind’.
Judges:
Dillon LJ
Citations:
[1988] 2 WLR 805
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Attorney-General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd QBD 1988
A Mr Peter Wright had written a book about his service in MI5. The Crown sought to restrain publication of the book by newspapers and also, as against The Sunday Times, an account of profits.
Held: As to this latter Scott J, said: ‘I had . .
See Also – Attorney General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No.1) HL 13-Aug-1987
A retired secret service officer intended to publish his memoirs through the defendant. The house heard an appeal against a temporary injunction restraining publication.
Held: Lord Bridge delivered his dissenting speech in the case of . .
Cited by:
Appeal From – Attorney-General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No 2) (‘Spycatcher’) HL 13-Oct-1988
Loss of Confidentiality Protection – public domain
A retired secret service employee sought to publish his memoirs from Australia. The British government sought to restrain publication there, and the defendants sought to report those proceedings, which would involve publication of the allegations . .
Cited – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp and Others v Harris and Others ChD 5-Feb-2013
The court was asked whether a copyright owner has a proprietary claim to money derived from infringement of the copyright.
Held: He did not. No such argument could be shown to have suceeded before. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Damages, Equity, Intellectual Property
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.473040
