M composed of the music for a French opera ‘Le Petit Michus’. An English version was to be produced in London on the terms of an agreement, describing itself as a licence, between the composer and the authors of the opera, between the licensors, and the proprietor of the theatre, the licensee. After recitals that the licensors had delivered the play to the licensee, with the score of the music, with a view to its production in London and elsewhere ‘on the terms hereinafter mentioned’, the licensors granted the licensee sole and exclusive right of representing the play in the UK, America and the British colonies and dominions. The agreement also provided that the copyright in the music of the play should remain the property of the appellant, that on the failure of the licensee to produce the play in London within a certain time all rights of representation as aforesaid should revert to and become again the absolute property of the licensor; that the licensee should pay to the licensors as royalties certain percentages of the gross profits, that the licensee should keep proper books showing the gross receipts of the theatres at which the plays should be represented, and that the licensors should be entitled to inspect the books, so as to enable them to verify the amount of the percentage payable to them. The Respondents in pursuance of a permission granted to them by a theatrical company to whom on the death of the licensee the benefit of the agreement had been assigned by his executor, gave a broadcast performance of the Opera at the studio in London. In an action by the appellant against the respondent or infringement of copyright, the Court of Appeal found the agreement to be an assignment.
Held: The appeal failed. The agreement, I) operated as an absolute assignment of the performing rights of the Opera within the prescribed area and was not a licence and 2) was not limited to representations on the stage of the theatre and the action failed.
Use in the agreement of the language of ‘reversion’ was ‘inept’ to describe the cessation of a licence, and more apt to describe an assignment of rights.
Labelling is not necessarily conclusive and the contract was an assignment, not merely a licence.
Judges:
Lord Hailsham LC
Citations:
[1929] AC 151, 98 LJKB 189, 140 LT 227, 45 TLR 50
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – British Actors Film Company Limited and Co v Glover 1918
Under a written agreement the owners of the copyright in a dramatic and the musical work agreed to let to the defendant the right of professionally performing the work in the provinces of the United Kingdom, reserving to themselves full liberty to . .
Cited by:
Cited – Crosstown Music Company 1 Llc v Rive Droite Music Ltd and Others CA 2-Nov-2010
Application for declaration of title to certain music copyrights. . .
Cited – JHP Ltd v BBC Worldwide Ltd and Another ChD 16-Apr-2008
. .
Cited – Singla v Hedman and Others ChD 28-Apr-2010
The claimant sought an order for wrongful trading against the former directors of a company in liquidation, and to set aside agreements entered into after the liquidation, but backdated to before. The agreements related to the proposed making of a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property
Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.655416