Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd v Marks and Spencer Plc [2003] 1 AC 551

• Defendant, Marks and Spencer, obtained press cuttings of articles in which they were mentioned from an agency licensed by Claimant. Defendant then made further copies of those cuttings for circulation to its Executives; in this process, changes were made so that articles fitted on an A4 sheet.

• Claimant alleged that the copying of those articles was an infringement of typographical arrangement copyright (Section 8) subsisting in newspapers.

• Relevant question was whether typographical arrangement copyright subsisted in the individual articles, or just in the newspaper as a whole.

Held

Test for Substantiality

• See notes

Typographical Arrangement

• ‘Presentation and layout’ in a newspaper is a combination of: choice of typeface, number and width of columns, relationship between headlines and text, number of articles per page, etc.

• The relation between size of copied part and size of work as a whole is irrelevant to this test

  • Therefore it is irrelevant whether copyright subsists in the individual articles or newspaper as a whole

Facts

• On facts, changes made to make sure articles fit on A4 sheet mean there is no breach.