Two authors, a woman and a man, collaborated on a book series. While working on the second book in the series, their collaboration ended. Later the authors entered into an agreement that stated that they agreed that the woman was the sole author of the second book and that the full copyright to the book belonged to her. She finished the book, and it was published with only her listed as the author.
The man brought an action against the woman and the publisher for copyright infringement and claimed, among other things, damages. He argued that they had used his copyrighted texts without his permission. He argued that the agreement only gave the other author the right to use the concept for the book series that they had created together, but not the texts that he had written.
The other author and the publisher disputed copyright infringement. They argued that the agreement meant that he had transferred and waived his rights to the other author.
The case concerned the question whether any specific principles of contractual interpretation should apply in the field of copyright, or whether copyright considerations are to be taken into account in other ways. The existence of such specific principles has long been discussed. The reason for considering such principles to apply has been that authors have been considered to have a valued role due to the importance of stimulating literary and artistic creation.
The Supreme Court concludes that such considerations specific to copyright that may need to be taken into account when interpreting agreements in the field of copyright should interact with what applies to contractual interpretation in general. They may therefore be taken into account in order to specify or supplement the circumstances when assessing and balancing the various interpretative factors related to the individual case, but not in the form of recognising any particular interpretative principles.
In its assessment of the case at hand, the Supreme Court's interpretation of the agreement leads to the conclusion that there has been no copyright infringement, which means that the action for damages etc. is dismissed.
The Supreme Court's judgment was delivered on 28 February 2025.
Case no: T 5449-23
Designation
"The Detective Series"
Contact
Press contact
Telephone: 08-561 666 30
Email: HDO-Presskontakt@dom.se