The court askeed whether there was a copyright in telegraph codes. The code consisted of 100,000 5-letter words that had been arrived at by generating 450,000 words, from which those that were unpronounceable and those that were likely to lead to an error in telegraphic transmission were eliminated. The 100,000 remaining words were used as a cipher.
Held: ‘there could be no doubt of the enormous utility of the book, and of the service rendered to anybody desirous of forming a telegraphic code by an undertaking which once and for all eliminated words liable to error, and supplied such a collection of the aptest words for telegraphic use.’ The collection of codes was protected by copyright.
Judges:
Bailhache J
Citations:
[1917] 2 KB 469
Citing:
Applied – Ager v Collingridge 1886
. .
Cited by:
Cited – Navitaire Inc v Easyjet Airline Co and Another ChD 30-Jul-2004
The claimant alleged infringement of its copyright in a software system which dealt with airline reservations. It was not said that any code had been copied, but merely that an express requirement of the defendant ordering the system was that it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.220331