The court considered the impact of the distinction drawn by Article 9(2) of TRIPS and Article 2 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty between ‘expressions’ and ‘ideas, procedures, methods of operation and mathematical concepts as such’ on domestic copyright law.
Held: Arnold J said: ‘Skill, judgement and labour in devising ideas, procedures, methods of operation and mathematical concepts is not protected by the copyright in a literary work. What is protected by copyright in a literary work is the skill, judgement and labour in devising the form of expression of the literary work.’
As to the test of whether there had been any ‘substantial part of a literary work, Arnold J said: ‘it is important to be clear as to the basis upon which a compilation of unprotectable subject-matter can be protected as a copyright work. As can be seen from Article 2(5) of the Berne Convention, Article 10(2) of TRIPS and Article 5 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, compilations are protected (whether or not the items compiled are protected) which ‘by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations’. Similarly, EU legislation adopts the test of ‘intellectual creation’ for the originality of computer programs (Article 1(3) of the Software Directive), databases for the purposes of copyright (Article 3(1) of [the Database Directive]) and photographs (Article 6 of Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the terms of protection of copyright and certain related rights, now codified as Directive 2006/116/EC). It is now clear from [Case C-5/08 Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening [2009] ECR I-0000] at [31]-[48] that there will only be reproduction of a substantial part of a literary work, including a compilation, where what has been reproduced represents the expression of the intellectual creation of the author of that literary work.’
Judges:
Arnold J
Citations:
[2011] RPC 1, [2010] ECDR 15, [2010] EWHC 1829 (Ch)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Allen v Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Another ChD 14-Oct-2010
The claimant sought damages alleging breach of copyright by the defendant author saying she had copied large parts of the claimant’s work in her book ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’. The defendant now sought summary judgment, saying the action . .
Cited – Forensic Telecommunications Services Ltd v West Yorkshire Police and Another ChD 9-Nov-2011
The claimant alleged infringement by the defendant of assorted intellectual property rights in its database. It provided systems for recovering materials deleted from Nokia mobile phones.
Held: ‘the present case is concerned with a collection . .
Cited – The Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd and Others v Meltwater Holding Bv and Others ChD 26-Nov-2010
The claimant newspapers complained of the spidering of the web-sites and redistribution of the materials collected by the defendants to its subscribers. The defendants including the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) denied that they . .
Principle judgment – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ChD 22-Nov-2010
The parties sought to agree the terms of a reference to the European Court of Justice. . .
At ChD (1) – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ECJ 29-Nov-2011
ECJ Opinion – Intellectual property – Directive 91/250/EEC – Directive 2001/29/EC – Legal protection of computer programs – Creation of various programs including the functionalities of another computer program . .
At ChD (1) – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ChD 25-Jan-2013
The parties disputed the extent to which elements of the claimant’s software package could be used by the defendants. SAS had written software including its own computer language to create a data processing environment. The defendants had wanted to . .
At ChD (1) – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd CA 21-Nov-2013
The court was asked as to the extent to which the developer of a computer program may lawfully replicate the functions of an existing computer program; and the materials that he may lawfully use for that purpose. SAS had produced a computer software . .
At Chd (1) – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ECJ 2-May-2012
ECJ (Grand Chamber) Intellectual property – Directive 91/250/EEC – Legal protection of computer programs – Articles 1(2) and 5(3) – Scope of protection – Creation directly or via another process – Computer . .
See Also – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ComC 13-Dec-2018
SAS sought to enforce its North Carolina judgment which was contrary to decisions already made by the UK and European Courts.
Held: Cockerill J held that the terms of the contract which purported to prohibit WPL’s conduct constituted a . .
See Also – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd (Injunction) ComC 25-Sep-2019
Continuation of anti-suit injunction – refused . .
See Also – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd (2495) ComC 25-Sep-2019
Post judgment orders . .
See Also – SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd CA 12-May-2020
Appeal from refusal of continuance of anti-suit injunction . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property, European
Updated: 23 November 2022; Ref: scu.421059
