Once, Silent Witness was one of the better crime dramas on television, but as some point a few years ago (after changes to the cast had already made it a shadow of its original self) it seemed to lose its connection to reality. I have not watched it for many years now, and the claim that an episode infringed copyright in an earlier screenplay made me wonder whether claiming even such an association with the show wouldn’t be detrimental to the purported author’s reputation. But there you are – that’s probabl
Molavi v Gilbert & Ors [2023] EWHC 646 (Ch) (23 March 2023) is a n unusual case, in that it came before the court on an application by the defendants (which included the BBC and BBC Studios Production Ltd as well as Virginia Gilbert, the named writer of the accused episodes of Silent Witness ) for summary judgment, on the grounds that the claimant had no real prospect of succeeding in her claim – Part 24.2 of the Civil Procedure Rules. And indeed it is hard to see, on the basis of the reported judgment, how
The case is an important one because copyright infringement claims so often rely on inferences. Direct evidence of the defendant taking the claimant’s work is unlikely to present itself. The claimant’s job is to satisfy the court about three matters: first, that the work is their original work; second, that the defendant has engaged in copying (or some other infringing act); and third, that what has been taken is a substantial part of the work.