Case Reports

Intellectual property - Copyright - Authorship - Originality

In Telstra Corporation Limited v Phone Directories Company Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 44 (8 February 2010), the Federal Court of Australia determined whether copyright subsists in White Pages and Yellow Pages directories as original literary works.  Applicants published telephone directories using computer programs and rules of prescriptive guidelines on listings, submitting that each directory constituted separate work and elements of directories satisfied under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).   Held: impossible to determine who created and had the benefit of the whole or any part of the various computer systems (including the Genesis Computer System) at any particular time.  Those using rules did not exercise independent intellectual effort or sufficient effort of literary nature to be considered author under Act. Applicants failed to identify joint authors essential for subsistence of copyright in directories. No reason to doubt first publication of directories in Australia satisfying s 32(2)(c) requirements. Directories not original as asserted authors did not exercise "independent intellectual effort" or "sufficient effort of literary nature" in creating the Works and directories did not involve "creative spark" or exercise of requisite "skill and judgment" [at 340]. Copyright did not subsist in any directory. Determination made.