Lucasfilm v Ainsworth - first impressions

I've just skimmed Mann J's voluminous judgment. In a nutshell, Ainsworth was facing 3 parallel claims:

- That he infringed copyright in the UK.
- That he was subject to the judgment Lucasfilm obtained against him by default in the US.
- That he could be sued in an English court for US copyright infringement.

Ainsworth won on the first two (and some subsidiary issues) but lost on the third. There will now have to be a further hearing to assess the claim under US law.

Lucasfilm v Ainsworth - after a bit more study

...for it's not a short judgment. The full version is available here; I was lucky enough to pick up one of the copies printed out for media and the public (I got the last one) and it's about half an inch think. If nothing else, I suspect that this case has defoliated the Forest Moon of Endor. In great detail, Mr Justice Mann goes into the question of whether prop-maker Mr Andrew Ainsworth infringed Lucasfilm's rights by making and selling copies of the Imperial Stormtrooper helmets and armour from Star Wars, items he had made for the original film production.

( Legal Analysis - with interesting implications for costume fans )

To summarise then: both Lucasfilm and Mr Ainsworth will be looking ahead to the next legal round, Ainsworth probably with a wary eye on his possible legal bill (which is of course fiddling small change to Lucasfilm), whilst Mr Justice Mann's judgment not only provides useful clarification of some famously vague areas of copyright law but on the face of it removes, in the UK at least, copyright protection from very many costumes and props depicted on film and TV, as well as provided exemption for their reproduction even where copyright may subsist. Meanwhile, we await Lucasfilm v Ainsworth, Part II: Return of Queen's Counsel.

I Have a LawBlog

Yes, Legal Clanger now has its own existence as LawClanger. You may find the first substantive post rather familiar-looking!

This is not the end of Legal Clanger posts, but for long articles I will probably put them on LawClanger and post a link here.