The appeal by Nova Productions against the judgement handed down in the High Court last January has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
The court ordered that Nova should pay costs of the appeal in addition to those of the trial and refused Nova leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
During the trial, which ran for 12 days in November 2005 at the Royal Courts of Justice, Nova claimed copyright infringement of its Pocket Money SWP game by Bell-Fruit Games in its Trick Shot AWP and Mazooma in its Jackpot Pool SWP.
In a tightly written judgment of the trial, the Honourable Mr Justice Kitchen concluded: “For all the reasons I have given I conclude that both actions fail.”
In dismissing Nova’s claim, the Court of Appeal held that “it is very important that copyright is not allowed to intervene to stifle the creation of works that are actually very different, as the individual games are here.”
It also said that had Nova’s claim been successful, copyright would become an instrument of oppression rather than an incentive for creation which it is intended to be.
Bell-Fruit managing director, John Austin, said: “Given the strength of the judgement of the trial, we were never in doubt that the appeal would be dismissed and, after a period of almost three years since the initial claims were raised, I will be glad to put it behind us.”
