Perfecting the Pitch: What Constitutes Sufficient Contribution to Give Rise to Joint Authorship?

The article discusses the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) judgment on the ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ case, which concerned the nature and extent of the defendant’s contribution to the writing of a screenplay and whether that contribution was sufficient to give rise to joint authorship in a copyright work within the meaning of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998. It considers the distinction between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ skill proposed by the court and the significance of the decision for the industry.