A recent and some might say controversial decision in the field of photography copyright has emerged from the Patents County Court, writes Ryan Harrison, of legal firm Browne Jacobson.
The court found that copyright in a predominantly black and white photograph owned by heritage retailer Temple Island, featuring a red London bus near Westminster (below left), was infringed by a later image (below right) created by gift-packet group New English Tea, that combined two images using image manipulation software.
Although the two final images are clearly the product of different photographs, the PCC held that, on a qualitative assessment, Image 2 reproduced a substantial part of Image 1 and therefore infringed.
Given that the two images are taken from a very different perspective, this decision seems to grant very wide copyright protection to the claimant. As here the defendant, NET, has infringed by reproducing an image of a classic London icon. Moreover, the icon is from a location which the judgement acknowledges is popular with photographers. The defendant also applied a well-known editing technique to isolate the red colour of the bus.
While there are some similarities between the two images, the PCC’s decision pushes the very limits of what is protectable in a photographic image.
Image 1:
Image 2:
Jan 26, 2012
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