Allen v Redshaw, Patents County Court
Ian Allen created a puppet show called Mr Spoon on Button Moon, as well as the puppets on the show. Thames Television commissioned seven series involving the character in the 1980s. Allen granted various merchandising rights to people including to makers of T-shirts. In 2007, Redshaw approached Allen to request taking a licence to make Button Moon merchandise. Allen offered a licence in respect of certain items but Redshaw did not agree to it. Two years later, Allen discovered that Redshaw was selling mugs, sweatshirts and T-shirts with a design that Allen claimed was a copy of his characters.
The Patents County Court has agreed with Allen’s claim and awarded him damages for copyright infringement and passing off. The test for originality in copyright ownership was low and Allen had passed that test. He had therefore created original works for the show. It rejected Redshaw’s claims including for parody. In any event, there was no such defence to copyright infringement.
The Court also upheld the claim for passing off despite the shows having been made two decades previously as there continued to be goodwill in the characters. It rejected the impact of Redshaw’s disclaimer on the products that said “100% unofficial, produced from original artwork & photographs independently produced without endorsement or affiliation with artists & persons depicted within.” The Court said that the wording was too small and “produced from original artwork & photographs” ruined the chance of any such defence. Although the products did not actually have the Button Moon name and they contained a disclaimer, they were so close to the original designs as to amount to a misrepresentation that the products were licensed or official products. The passing off claim therefore also succeeded.
