Lucasfilm v Ainsworth - first impressions

[major_clanger]

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.

Comments

[cdave]

Does that mean he'll be the case will be heard in a UK court under US law?

How many people are legal experts in US IP law, and UK court procedure? Or is court procedure not that different, so they can just bring in US legal professionals?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

A lot of the actual US law is similar to UK law and the key area of difference was argued over in court via expert witnesses familiar with it. What the judge had to decide was:

a) did the difference mean that there was infringement under US law? (there was)

b) could an English court hear a US copyright claim at all?

Point (b) was rather harder and a lot of previous cases suggested that no, an English court couldn't normally do this. However, for reasons I'll try to explain when I do a more detailed analysis of the case, Mann J decided that here he could - in part because to refuse to do so, given his grounds for rejecting the attempt to enforce the prior US judgment - would leave Lucasfilm with no recourse. He therefore decided that he could apply US law, but what remains is for another hearing to look at the remedy that Lucasfilm will get.

And here I am in the dark. Will an English court apply English damages? We assess them in a very different way to the US courts, basing them on actual losses rather than punitive measures, so the amount of money would be far lower. Also, damages for a US copyright claim would presumably be limited to Ainsworth's sales into the US, as it has been ruled that his sales within the UK were perfectly legitimate. And of course both sides are likely to appeal this judgment as neither of them will be happy with it.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

if they decide juridcition not founded in UK the case won't be heard here anyway. Was the b decision on jurisdiction, or just on choice of law (in which case cdave's issue arises?)

Re remedies: traditional IPL says that remedies, like procedure and evidence, fall to the lex fori rather than lex causae I think. Makes sense if you think about it ; what if US law prescribes spanking instead of damages? we have no procedures to deal it out. But there may be weird specialities for Ip to which IPL was never meant to apply anyway..

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Nice headline spotted on Google News:

Star Wars court battle set for sequel