Copyright Law in UK Law

I have pointed out earlier in this judgment that the basis of the defence of public interest in a breach of confidence action cannot be the same as the basis of such defence to an action for infringement of copyright. In an action for breach of confidence the foundation of the action can fall away if that is required in the public interest, but that can never happen in a copyright action.

Similarly and more generally, a written work consisting of a specification of the functions of an intended computer program will attract protection as a literary work. The fact that a work can get copyright even if mundane, is old and familiar to an English lawyer. But the Directive needed to say that protection as a literary work should be provided for preparatory design work because not all Member States under their existing laws necessarily provided that.

And if he does copy, the question whether he has copied a substantial part depends much more on the quality than on the quantity of what he has taken. But, in my view, that is only a short cut, and the more correct approach is first to determine whether the plaintiff's work as a whole is "original" and protected by copyright, and then to enquire whether the part taken by the defendant is substantial.

Whether a part is substantial must be decided by its quality rather than its quantity. The reproduction of a part which by itself has no originality will not normally be a substantial part of the copyright and therefore will not be protected. For that which would not attract copyright except by reason of its collocation will, when robbed of that collocation, not be a substantial part of the copyright and therefore the courts will not hold its reproduction to be an infringement.

It appears to me that Clause 1 of the document should, on the proper constructionof the document, be regarded as, and given the effect of, an assignment of copyright - an assignment at the time when it was made of future copyright - which by the effect of Section 37(1) of the statute became an assignment of copyright and a vesting of copyright when the work came into existence.