COPYRIGHT OF RACE BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 55

COPYRIGHT OF RACE BOOKS.

WELLINGTON, April 13. A case of considerable importance to racing clubs has occupied the attention of the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court on two or three occasions lately. The action arose out of the question of copywright of an official card as issued by the Wellington Racing Club for its summer meeting in January. The club sold the privilege of issuing cards for some £190, but on the day of the first day, or the day before the racing, one T. Donovan issued an alleged imitation of the official card, and purchasers of the privilege from the club now sued Johnson and Sons, -who printed the card for Donovan, for £100 damages. The defence was that no copyright existed, and that the information contained in the card printed by the defendants was available outside official sources. Dr M'Arthur, S.M., in the course of a lengthy judgment to-day, said it had been urged for the defence that there had been no exclusive right of sale to plaintiffs, and therefore there could be no infringement of the right sold. His Worship referred to the conditions of sale relating to the privileges, and held that privilege was an exclusive right. For the defence it had baen stated that the books were compiled independently of the official books from information available to anyone. His Worship compared the official book and that issued by defendants, and said there was almost undeniable evidence that someone had a proof of the official card, and used it before it was corrected. Possession of such proof would explain all the inconsistencies in the defendants' work. He was of opinion that a case of infringement of copyright had been very clearly established, and that the appearance of defendants' publication was so designed as to deceive persons of ordinary intelligence who were likely to purchase an official card. Where there was a close resemblance in general appearance, style, and arrangement of contents ol a book, an intention to deceive niay be established. He entered up judgment for plaintiff for £76, with £15 17s costs.