27 July 2011

Star Wars - The End of the (Legal) Saga? UK Supreme Court Delivers Judgment in Lucasfilm v Ainsworth

Star Wars - The End of the (Legal) Saga? UK Supreme Court Delivers Judgment in Lucasfilm v Ainsworth

On 27 July 2011 the Supreme Court in London delivered judgment in a long-running dispute between Lucasfilm and an Englishman who was producing replicas of the Stromtrooper helmets. Lucasfilm were ultimately unsuccessful.

First, the Court held that there was no longer any design right or copyright protection for the helmet. It was not a ‘sculpture’ and so any copyright protection had long expired.

The most interesting legal decision is that the Court held that it is possible to sue for infringements of a foreign (in this case US) copyright in England. Whilst it has long been possible to sue for infringements of copyright of an EU country, there had been judicial reluctance to extend this to non-EU countries. Essentially you can now sue if: (a) the defendant is domiciled in England; and (b) that defendant has (allegedly) committed an infringing act in the other country.

Whether this will lead to more proceedings for copyright infringement in England is doubtful, but if there is an English-domiciled defendant who has infringed in a number of countries then the option is now there. This should certainly help in infringement cases where the activities are global, especially in the digital arena.

Useful links

Full text of decision:
Lucasfilm Ltd & Ors v Ainsworth & Anor [2011] UKSC 39 (27 July 2011)