NIPC Law

This note that I first wrote in 1999 on the decision of Park J in  Christoffer v Poseidon Film Distributors Ltd   [1999] EWHC 262 (Ch), [2000] ECDR 487   discusses  another interesting old case that I have read again while updating the IP/IT Update website.   Three intellectual property issues arose in this case in which 5 separate actions came on for trial before Park J: whether copyright subsists in a film script which was based substantially on Book IX of Homer's Odyssey; if it did, whether it was infringed by making an animated film from the script; and whether the distribution of that film without attributing authorship to the scriptwriters infringed the writers' moral rights. There were many other issues but they were concerned with the fracts rather than the law. The Facts The case arose from a dispute between two Greek Cypriots,  Andrew Christoffer  ( "Mr Christoffer" ), a freelance scriptwriter, and  Frixos Constantine  ( "Mr Constantine" ), a direc...