The plaintiff complained that some engineering information had been taken from their copyright drawings by the defendants.
Held: There had been no infringement of copyright in the drawings.
When considering whether an author’s copyright has been infringed, the court must find a causal connection between the copyright work and any infringing work. Evidence of an infringement may be negatived by acceptable evidence of independent design. A copying may not be an infringement if it fails to create a sufficient resemblance to amount to a reproduction.
Judges:
Hoffmann J
Citations:
[1990] FSR 105
Cited by:
Cited – Designers Guild Limited v Russell Williams (Textiles) Limited PatC 14-Jan-1998
The defendant denied that it had copied the plaintiff’s designs.
Held: There was sufficient evidence of copying. It was wrong to dissect a work, but rather the court should look at the matter as a whole. . .
Cited – Vestergaard Frandsen Sa ( Mvf3 Aps) and Others v Bestnet Europe Ltd and Others CA 20-Apr-2011
The claimants manufactured insecticidal fabrics. They claimed that the defendants had produced their own product using confidential information obtained from their former employees now working for the defendant. The courts had granted injunctions . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.191197