Supreme Court of British Columbia – There can be no joint authorship in the absence of a common intention to that effect.
Cohen J said: ‘In the result I find that the test for joint authorship that should be applied to the facts in the instant case is as follows:
i) Did the plaintiff contribute significant original expression to the songs? If yes,
ii) Did each of the plaintiff and Ms McLachlan intend that their contributions be merged into a unitary whole? If yes,
(iii) Did each of the [joint authors] intend the other to be a joint author of the song?’
Judges:
Cohen J
Citations:
1999 CanLII 7014 (BC SC), [2000] RPC 935, [1999] RPC 935
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Canada
Citing:
Cited – Levy v Rutley CCP 1871
A claim of joint authorship was made in a play entitled The King’s Wager, or The Camp, the Cottage and the Court. The play had been written by a Mr Wilks, to whose work the plaintiff, and others at the plaintiff’s suggestion, had added a scene and a . .
Cited by:
Cited – Kogan v Martin and Others CA 9-Oct-2019
Dispute over the authorship of the screenplay of a film.
Held: ‘the judgment cannot stand. The judge has adopted an erroneous approach to the evidence, failed to make important findings of primary fact, failed to take account of material . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property
Updated: 09 September 2022; Ref: scu.644133
