Login
Fairfax loses copyright battle
John Fairfax Publications (Fairfax) has lost a long-running copyright case against LexisNexis Australia (LNA), reinforcing the previously held view that copyright does not subsist in de minimis…
Lawyers Weekly
John Fairfax Publications (Fairfax) has lost a long-running copyright case against LexisNexis Australia (LNA), reinforcing the previously held view that copyright does not subsist in de minimis works.
ABIX offers daily abstracts of news stories, sourced from a wide range of Australian news publications and including the AFR, to a primarily corporate customer base.
In a ruling handed down in the Federal Court today (7 September), Justice Annabelle Bennett found that the reproduction of a headline does not infringe copyright, supporting the notion that that there is no copyright protection for works considered to be de minimus, including words, titles and advertising slogans.
Justice Bennett also recognised that there is no copyright in the news itself and that it is fair to use a newspaper article headline when abstracting that article.
Related articles
>> Top cases: Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd
