Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Decisions of British Courts During 2011 Involving Questions of Public or Private International Law: B. Private International Law

2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 82; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/bybil/brs013

2044-9437

A. Rushworth, Andrew Scott,

Legal case studies and regulations

I. Justiciability of an action for the infringement of a foreign copyright: Lucasfilm Ltd & Ors v Ainsworth & Anor1 In the mid-1970s, Mr Ainsworth was commissioned by the Claimants to make military-style ‘Stormtrooper’ helmets to be used in the Star Wars films. In 2004, Mr Ainsworth used his original tools to make versions of the Stormtrooper helmet and armour for sale to the public. Some of those goods were sold in the United States. The Claimants sued, and obtained judgment against, Mr Ainsworth in the United States, on the basis that the Claimants’ copyrights had been infringed. This judgment proved to be unenforceable in England because the US courts lacked jurisdiction over Mr Ainsworth for the purposes of English rules on the recognition of foreign judgments. In these circumstances, the Claimants sued Mr Ainsworth in England claiming in respect of his alleged: (i) breach of English copyright; and (ii) breach of US copyright. The determination of the former was a matter of domestic intellectual property law, and does not concern the present note. The determination of the latter raised questions of English private international law, specifically whether actions for infringement of foreign copyrights are justiciable in England. The Court of Appeal had held that they are not, on the basis of the extension of the Moçambique rule 2 to claims concerning foreign intellectual property rights, a step that had already been taken by the High Court of Australia in Potter v Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd , 3 which Vinelott J followed in Tyburn Productions Ltd v Conan Doyle . 4 The Supreme Court allowed the Claimants’ appeal.