Recent Cases

Lucasfilm v Ainsworth

The Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s conclusions that the claimant’s designs were not sculptures and were thus not infringed by the defendant since they had no protection.  The claimant owned the rights to the Star Wars films.  In the 1970s, the claimant had engaged the defendant to produce the plastic suits of armour worn by Imperial Stormtrooper characters in the films.  In 2004, the defendant had begun selling suits of armour to fans using his original moulds.  The claimant sued on the basis that the armour was a sculpture protected by copyright or alternatively on the basis that the defendant infringed its US copyright in the armour.
The Court of Appeal upheld the judge, accepting that an article must have some artistic purpose (though not necessarily merit) to qualify as a sculpture.  Since the armour were used as props in a film, their purpose was functional.  The claim based on US copyright was also rejected following an analysis of case law on subject matter jurisdiction.