A play called The English Way of Doing Things was written by the second defendant, William Donaldson, who based it on his novel of the same name. Donaldson was an established novelist but had never written a play. The idea for transforming the novel into a play came from the plaintiff, Wiseman, an aspiring stage producer, who provided Donaldson with advice and criticism during the writing of the play and who claimed to be a joint author.
Held: Wiseman had written no part of the play.
Considering whether the contribution Wiseman had actually made qualified him as a joint author. It did not: ‘I have said that Mr. Donaldson quite frankly accepted that he had not had great experience in the field of the theatre. He made it quite plain that, in writing this play, he was indebted to Mr. Wiseman not only for many hints of stagecraft, but also for a great deal of constructive criticism. Mr. Wiseman, Mr. Donaldson told me, was a useful critic, able to say pertinent things about how plays should be written; but, says Mr. Donaldson, he certainly did not write the play.’
Judges:
Whitford J
Citations:
[1985] FSR 525
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Martin and Another v Kogan and Others IPEC 22-Nov-2017
The parties disputed whether joint authorship of the screenplay for a film, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’. The claimant now sought a declaration of sole authorship of film screenplay, and the defendant cross-claimed for a declaration of joint . .
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.644132