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Law Cases
Intellectual Property Law Cases
Copyright 2 Cases

Interlego AG v Tyco Industries Inc [1989] AC 217

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
Lord Oliver
Obiter
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  • Lego had expired patent and design rights on its bricks. In 1972, Lego redrew the design drawings for its bricks – with substantial features of the previous design kept, and the only main changes being to the written information on the drawing which were of technical importance for manufacturing purposes.

  • Defendant made and sold bricks in Hong Kong which were compatible with those of Lego, by copying principal features of Lego’s design.

  • Issue was whether post-1972 drawings had copyright.

Lord Oliver

  • Skill, labour or judgment merely in process of copying does not confer originality.

  • Thus an exact copy is not original, even if making it required skill or labour.

    • Copy must contain some alteration or addition to the earlier work.

  • Whether addition is sufficient is question of degree having regard to quality of addition, and not the quantity.

  • Thus even relatively small addition may suffice.

    • is no universal test of originality.

    • i.e. test in William Hill cannot be applied to all copyright cases.

  • On facts, graphical drawings were not original.

Obiter

  • A photo of an existing painting (or painting of an existing photo) does not have copyright.

  • Despite skill required in making the copy of the original photo/painting, the copy painting or photo are unoriginal.

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