No summary judgment in software copyright case

Douglas Campbell QC, sitting as a Chancery Division judge, refused to give the claimant summary judgment in Oysterware Ltd & Intentor Ltd [2020] EWHC 2125 (Ch) (not yet on Bailii: I am indebted to the report from Practical Law) although it might have been another story had the claim been formulated differently.

The claimant supplied hardware, software, and support to the defendant. When the relationship came to an end, they sued for breach of contract, breach of confidence, and infringement of copyright, alleging that the first defendant had copied the design of what was referred "the Embedded Product." 

The Embedded Product was described as a single homogenous runtime image (a runtime image being, as I understand it, executable Java code that does not need an accompanying Java Runtime Environment distributed with it, which makes it much smaller and more easily distributed). It consisted of computer code that emanated variously from Microsoft, third party suppliers and the claimant, but the defendants characterised it as a general-purpose computer running Windows XP. Of course the claimant owned no copyright in the operating system or in the third party software, but that is not really the point; no doubt recognising this fact, they had claimed that copyright in the design of the Embedded Product, rather than copyright in the embedded product itself, had been infringed.

So what was that design? A former employee of the claimant gave evidence that the embedded product had to be considered as a whole (hence the "single homogenous" rubric). This embraced the specific design of the runtime image and the compilation of components. But the claim said that the runtime image was the copyright work; it said nothing about copyright in a compilation. (I find myself imagining the judge, indeed any judge, thinking about how he could have drafted the claim - I doubt they can resist doing so, although of course that in itself is not grounds for a decision.)

The employee explained that the design involved skilled choices, which sounds like a last-ditch effort to rescue a drowning copyright claim; crucially, that was a matter for the court. The pleadings had left subsistance as a matter that needed a trial, precluding summary judgment.

Whether what the defendants had copied was what conferred onginality on the Embedded Product was another matter that was that was not suitable for summary disposition. Because the claimant had failed to identify what the product's structure was and whether it involved intellectual creativity, they were not going to get summary judgment.

The same litigation has already given us a statement of the principles to be applied in an application to strike out: [2018] EWHC 611, which is also missing from Bailii.

Cheat software infringes copyright in Grand Theft Auto V

It won't surprise you to learn that computer games are not my thing. I did have to look at one some years ago for a client who objected to the content (we took the view in the end that the Streisand Effect was likely to make anything the client did about it counter-productive). So if I don't relate to computer games themselves, what am I supposed to think about software that enables the user to cheat in the game?

Cheat software is what was in issue in Take-Two Interactive Software Inc & Anor v James & Ors [2020] EWHC 179 (Pat) (29 January 2020) where in an application for summary judgment the judge (Mrs Justice Falk) held that it infringed copyright in the game itself. Not only that, there were breaches of contract both by the defendants and induced by them, the elements of the tort of inducing a breach of contract (knowledge, intention and damage, as laid down in OBG Ltd v Allan [2008] 1 AC 1) being made out against most of the defendants. There were a couple of points (the liability of a minor defendant, and circumvention of technical protection measures under s.296 CDPA to which the defendants seem to have had a plausible factual defence) which were not candidates for summary judgment, but on the other claims the judge saw no reason to leave liability for a trial.

Leaving aside the contract issues, this being an intellectual property blog, the important finding here is that by providing the cheat software the fourth and fifth defendants (the first three having settled earlier) had authorised copying of Grand Theft Auto V or substantial parts of it. The cheat software took information from the game so it could reproduce an image of something for use in the game. That there was copying is plain, and the defendants had provided the means to do the copying. Using the cheat software as intended would inevitably result in infringement.

The defendants tried arguing that the game software on the user's device remained unaltered, and any affect from the cheat software was not permanent: but transient copying is clearly within the s.16 definition of infringement, so that got them nowhere. However, the fact that the impact of the cheat software was on the program when running meant that attention had to be focussed on elements that frankly look a bit peripheral to my mind: images of weapons used in the game, and their software-driven functionality, residing in libraries and code within the program, were the example the judge referred to. Cheating meant conjuring up weapons that the user was not entitled to have, according to the rules of the game, so the copies were infringing ones. It strikes me as a pretty small infringement, and perhaps the fact of the matter is that the wrong here lies outside the scope of copyright (the breach of contract claims look much more substantial and convincing to me), but it does show how copyright can be brought to bear on a problem like this.

Would copyright remedies be worth pursuing? That remains to be decided, and the judge expressed the hope that hte parties will be able to sort that out without a trial. It's hard to see where the damage to the claimant is, and I suppose it's even arguable that the defendants might have made the game a bit more popular by opening up new possibilities and providing a route to a satisfactory outcome that users might not be able to achieve on their own. An account of profits might yield more. However, with copying of elements of the game inherent in the cheating (making more weapons available, etcetera) I can see grounds for the grant of an injunction, which would effectively put a stop to the cheating, even though it seems like a roundabout way to get there.

Summary judgment for trade mark infringement

Lewis v Client Connection Ltd. [2011] EWHC 1627 (Ch) (06 July 2011) is a case in which the the claimant, who runs a much-used website called "Money Saving Expert" sought summary judgment against the defendants who were trading as "Money Claiming Expert". The application for summary judgment was granted, though not under all heads.

Mr Lewis claimed three types of trade mark infringement, under section 10(1) (double identity), (2) (likelihood of confusion) and (3) (dilution) of the Act. The first was a little on the fanciful side, because it turned on the defendant's trading name being misheard when they cold-called (which was how they gathered business). There was a suggestion that their telephone agents were actually using the claimant's trade name, but either way this was not a suitable claim for summary judgment.

The second claim was another matter, though. Although there were witnesses who had clearly not been confused (the terms of their emails to Mr Lewis's business revealed that) actual confusion is not what is needed: only a likelihood of it happening has to be shown. The judge (Norris J) gave them summary judgment under that head.

He went on to say that he was satisfied, based on the number of people who visited the site, that money Saving Expert had a reputation sufficient for section 10(3) to apply, so he would also have been minded to give judgment in the claimant's favour under that heading too. But having given judgment on the basis of likelihood of confusion, there was no need to go on.

The judgment contains a brief and therefore handy review of the case law on identity between trade marks and on similarity and likelihood of confusion, and also the law on summary judgment, so it's worth a look - and not very long, either.