Taylor v Maguire, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court
Taylor was an artist in the field of paper cutting. She had produced paper-cut letters “K” and “S” and an image of a rabbit. It was done in an artistic way. Maguire created similar images. Taylor claimed copyright infringement and remedies as a result.
The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court agreed with Taylor’s claim and granted her an injunction, destruction of infringing works and damages. The judge was not sure whether the works were drawings or graphic works, but either way they were original artistic works. They were original because Taylor had had to make detailed choices such as the overall shape of the design, the structure of stems and branches and the infilling of the design with flowers, birds and insects. There were sufficient similarities between Taylor’s and Maguire’s to constitute infringement.
