An accountant engineer employed by the plaintiffs assigned to the defendants the copyright in a work derived from public lectures he had given. The plaintiffs obtained an injunction saying that the work contained confidential material and that having been prepared in the course of his employment, the copyright belonged to them. The publishers appealed.
Held: The defendant’s appeal succeeded in part. The claim of breach of confidence was not supported by the evidence and failed. The bulk of the work was derived from public lectures given outside the scope of the author’s employment as an accountant, and he owned and could assign the copyrights. In particular it seemed that some was written after the termination of the employment. Certain parts of it however were created as part of his employment and were not his to assign. There was a mixed contract with certain parts created under a contract of employment, and certain under a contract for services.
Judges:
Sir Raymoind Evershed MR, Denning and Morris LJJ
Citations:
[1952] 1 TLR 101, [1952] RCOC 10
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Intellectual Property, Employment
Updated: 29 June 2022; Ref: scu.430518
