Copyright Law

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and his co-writers have been awarded over £900,000 in legal costs as an interim payment following his success in a high-profile court battle with a man who accused him of plagiarism. The High Court in London previously rejected allegations by Sami Chokri, w

The family of an Israeli writer whose article inspired the 1986 film Top Gun is suing Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement over the new sequel. They argue the studio lacked the rights to Ehud Yonay's 1983 story "Top Guns" when it released Top Gun: Maverick.

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has won a high-profile court battle with a man who accused him of plagiarism. Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, claimed that Sheeran's 2017 hit Shape of You infringed on his copyright by plagiarising the main hook from his 2015 song Oh Why.

Controversial new EU copyright rules will help help close the "value gap" between content creators and online service providers, an expert in IP law has said. Marking World Intellectual Property Day, Dr Mark Hyland, the IMRO adjunct professor of IP law at the Law Society of Ireland, said Article 17

The estate of the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is suing Netflix for copyright infringement because Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as too warm, empathetic and respectful of women in one of its upcoming films. Enola Holmes, due to be released this September, is based on a book series published in the 200

Colin Russell, trainee solicitor at William Fry, considers a recent European Court of Justice ruling that copyright protection can apply to a product's shape. In a case concerning the Brompton folding bicycle, a Belgian court sought a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on wh

Olivia O'Kane, partner and head of media and entertainments at Carson McDowell, examines a recent English court case concerning the authorship of a screenplay. In Julia Kogan v Nicholas Martin & others [2019] EWCA Civ 1645, a dispute arose over the authorship of the screenplay for the film Flore

Copyright law reforms allowing owners of intellectual property to pursue lower-value IP infringement claims in the District and Circuit Courts have come into effect as of yesterday. The Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 aims to modernise the copyright regime in Irelan

Maureen Daly, partner and head of technology and intellectual property at Beauchamps, writes on recent changes to Irish copyright law. The Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 was signed into law by the President on 26 June 2019, but the Act has not yet commenced. A Comm

A judge in Minneapolis has sentenced lawyer Paul Hansmeier to 14 years' imprisonment for a scheme which saw him upload pornographic material to file-sharing networks before threatening to sue people who downloaded them, Ars Technica reports. “It is almost incalculable how much your abuse of tr

EU member states have two years to implement controversial new copyright laws following their adoption by the EU Council of Ministers. Ireland and the UK were among the 19 member states who voted in favour of the adoption of the EU Copyright Directive at yesterday's meeting, with just six countries

The European Parliament has voted to approve a controversial new copyright directive which critics say will limit freedom of expression online. MEPs adopted the directive in plenary by 348 votes in favour, 274 against and 36 abstentions, marking the end of a legislative process that began three year