An Overview of Copyright Law

8. IRE Intellectual Property Law: Copyright

Introduction

An in-depth analysis of Lord Hoffman’s statement and the text of the judgement provide three key premises. The premises are as follows;

1. Copyright protects the “expression of the idea” as opposed to the “idea” itself.

2. The skill and labour that an artist puts into expressing the idea determines whether it will be deemed as an original piece of work or not.

3. In order to infringe a copyright one has to copy a whole or a ‘substantial part’ of that work, however substantiality cannot be determined by setting out the details of what has been copied and reviewing each item individually, the details have to be viewed as a holistic piece of work to consider if it forms a substantial part of that work. “The role played by the component in the allegedly infringing work is irrelevant, and that substantiality is related to the qualities that give the copied work its originality”

This essay is in agreement with Lord Hoffman on these three premises, the essay provides significant flesh around the issues of originality and substantial taking before proceeding to look at the key case which forms the basis of the question. The essay utilises established UK case law, UK statute and legal thinking from other jurisdictions to provide clarity on the points while concluding that any deviation in the rules as currently set out will not only lead to the restriction of creativity but also to a major burden on the courts through an opening of the floodgates.

Introduction to Intellectual Property Law

Copyright law is an element of an area of law known as Intellectual Property Law, (IP Law). IP law deals with intangible rights protecting the products of human intelligence and creation and can be broken down into four key areas of law namely Patents, Trademarks, Design law and Copyrights.

Patents

Patents protect solutions and are put in place to solve technical problems; (inventions) and can be processes or...