Catherine Bond is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Australia.

IceTV Pty Limited v Nine Network Australia Pty Limited [2009] HCA 14

In mid-2008, when the High Court of Australia granted special leave to appeal in the copyright case IceTV Pty Ltd v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd, Australian copyright scholars were surprised. When, on 22 April 2009 the High Court returned a 6-0 verdict finding in favour of IceTV and that no copyright infringement had occurred, Australian copyright academics and practitioners were even more surprised as this was not the verdict that many had been expecting.

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Posted in Copyright, Infringement, IP, Originality
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Catherine Bond is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales

Today there are generally no surprises when it comes to copyright law. Earlier this year, when the Full Federal Court overturned the decision of Bennett J in Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd v IceTV Pty Ltd, there was disappointment, but no surprise. That case concerned copyright infringement in a weekly schedule of television programs produced by the Nine Network and the Full Federal Court found that IceTV, in creating a similar television guide based on Nine’s programs, had taken a substantial part of the schedule and infringed copyright. Thus when the High Court of Australia granted special leave to appeal in IceTV v Nine Network Australia, Australian IP scholars were surprised, and our surprise was supported by two factors. The first was the High Court’s refusal five years earlier to grant special leave in Desktop Marketing Systems v Telstra Corporation Pty Ltd where our Full Federal Court had set the standard of originality for the subsistence of copyright at arguably the lowest level anywhere in the world. The second was the fact that the finding of the Full Federal Court was actually consistent with the Australian and UK legal position on originality and infringement (see for example David Lindsay’s presentation to this effect).

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Posted in Copyright, IP
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