Case Nos: IL-2023-000080 and IL-2024-000038 - [2025] EWHC 2561 (Ch)

Section 10(1) of the 1988 Act defines a ‘work of joint authorship’ as:

It seems to me that the requirement in the subsection that ‘the contribution of each author is not distinct’ is to be interpreted as meaning that the contribution of one author (or set of authors) is not distinct in nature, in classifiable form, from that of other authors. Otherwise the requirement would be robbed of any meaning: all collaborations are bound to involve a distinct contribution from each author in the limited sense that they are individuals each doing a task not being done by the others.

Section 10(3) of the 1988 Act states that references to the author of a work in the Act shall, except as otherwise provided, be construed in relation to a work of joint authorship as references to all the authors of the work.

Section 11 provides that the author of a literary work is the first owner of copyright subsisting in it unless the work is made in the course of the author’s employment, in which case his employer is the first owner subject to any agreement to the contrary.