LawyerLink.com.au

IceTV Pty Ltd (Ice) provides an interactive subscription-based electronic TV program guide (EPG), displaying details of programs scheduled to be broadcast on free-to-air television. The Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd (Nine) alleged that, in providing the EPG, Ice infringed Nine's copyright in its weekly programming schedule (Weekly Schedule).

Justice Bennett of the Federal Court found that while copyright subsisted in the Weekly Schedule in its entirety, Ice did not infringe this copyright on the following grounds:

- upon commencing its operations, Ice considered Nine's copyright and took calculated steps to avoid infringement (for example, requiring an employee to watch TV for 3 weeks to create a schedule of Nine's programs and using this information to "predict" future programming, and obtaining program synopses from the internet to avoid using Nine's synopses);

- while Ice used free-to-air guides such as yahoo7.com and yourtv.com, in which Nine's copyright in the Weekly Schedule subsisted, Ice did not copy the program details and mere "slivers" of this information were used to confirm the time and title of Nine's programs; and

- the skill and labour that Nine exerted in creating the Weekly Schedule related to placing programs in an order that appealed to viewers. As Ice was not a broadcaster in competition with Nine, it did not appropriate the skill and labour relevant to Nine's copyright in the Weekly Schedule.

Source - Blake Dawson Waldron Lawyers

LawyerLink.com.au - Australia's #1 Law Firm Directory