Introduction

• This case deals with the copyright can be granted to ideas or not by clearly stating that a person cannot be entitled to get the copyright in ideas.
• The ideas can be communicated but cannot be copyrighted.

Facts

• In this case Mr. Felstead a freelance journalist, worked on behalf of Mr. Donoghue entered into a contract with the ‘News of the World’ newspaper for the sum of $2,000.
• Mr. Donoghue did not write any article, he used to communicate the ideas to Felstead who then wrote the article based on the conversation.
• After the series of articles appeared Sunday after Sunday then Mr. Felstead entered into the agreement with another newspaper, ‘Guidelines and Ideas’ to publish an article called ‘My Racing secrets by Steve Donoghue’ after adding some material without taking the permission of Donoghue.
• The Plaintiff sought an injunction by claiming that his rights have been infringed.

Issue Involved

• Whether the plaintiff is sole owner of the copyright of the articles?

Observations

• Justice Farewell of High Court, United Kingdom observed that “there is no copyright in an idea or ideas.
• The court said that a person may have a brilliant idea for a story, or a picture, or a play, and one which appears to him to be original; but if he communicates that idea to an author or an artist or a playwright, the production which is the result of the communication of the idea to the author or the artist or the playwright is the copyright of the person who has clothed the idea in a form, whether, using a picture, a play, or a book, and the owner of the idea has no rights in that product.
• The Court further observed if the idea, however brilliant and however clever it may be, is nothing more than an idea and is not put into any form of words or any form of expression and there is no such copyright in all these ideas.
  • Unless and until the idea is not converted into writing or into some tangible form it cannot be entitled to copyright.
• The Court further said that the plaintiff could not bring action against the defendant.
• The language used in the articles was established to be Mr. Felstead's and not Mr. Donoghue's, although some of the articles contained dialogue possibly taken some words from Mr. Donoghue's recollections.

Conclusion

• From the present case, it is clear that copyright subsists in work, not in ideas, themes or plots.
  • The idea is not a subject matter of copyright, and the copyright is not infringed if someone takes the idea and develops his own work.
• The court held that the plaintiff was neither the owner nor co-owner of any of the articles in the 'News of the World' and the action was not maintainable in the court.

Note

• According to Section 13 of Copyright Act, 1957 copyright subsists in the following works:
  • Original Literary, Dramatic, Musical and Artistic works
  • Cinematographic films and
  • Sound recording
• There exists no copyright in ideas. Copyright subsists only in the material form to which the ideas are translated. Two authors may have the same idea for a book. However, the way they express themselves i.e., the way they put down their idea in a tangible form is what that makes a difference.