Success in a landmark court case featuring characters from TV comedy classic Only Fools and Horses has earned national law firm Ashfords’ intellectual property disputes team a major award.
The team represented Shazam Productions, which owns the copyright in the scripts for the much-loved sitcom, in legal proceedings brought against an unlicensed ‘interactive dining show’.
Called Only Fools The (cushty) Dining Experience, it featured the multi award-winning TV show’s famous characters and many of their catchphrases and jokes as well as their backstories, which were presented in the context of an interactive pub quiz which never appeared in the sitcom.
The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ruled that central character Del Boy was a separate copyright work, independent of the series’ scripts – the first time a UK court has recognised that a fictional character can be an independent copyright work in their own right.
The case was also the first in this country to consider the defences of ‘fair dealing’ with a copyright work, for the purposes of ‘parody or pastiche’. The court rejected these, ruling that the dining experience was simply an imitation.
The team’s victory in proving copyright infringement and passing-off against the organisation behind the dining experience led to it winning the Impact Case of the Year Award at the Managing IP Awards 2023.
Ashfords partner and head of IP Carl Steele, pictured, who led the legal team representing Shazam, said: “We are thrilled to have been recognised formally for what we achieved for the client and the wider industry.
“The court’s decision has major implications for those who wish to use fictional characters and who, in the past, might not have sought the copyright owner’s permission to do so.”
The Managing IP Awards, now in their 18th year, recognise leading IP specialist law firms and their clients from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The awards recognise in-house teams, law firms, individuals and corporations behind the most innovative and challenging intellectual property work of the past year.
Ashfords, which has offices in Bristol, London, Taunton and Plymouth, advises on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency deals for businesses and individuals.
Its IP team, which consists of a mix of experienced solicitors and chartered trade mark attorneys. is ranked Tier 1 in the respected Legal 500 directory.
