71
I. COPYRIGHT: CASES AND MATERIALS
MR JUSTICE PINCUS:
The underlying notion appears to be that a piece of intellectual property may be deprived of
protection in one category on the ground that it is more appropriately dealt with under another.
In the absence of any such principle, anomalous results may ensue. For example, if the
applicants’ trade mark registrations expired ... by effluxion of time, or were removed from the
register on the ground of non-user ..., it would seem odd that the applicants could still protect
the marks as drawings under the Copyright Act. ... But the question whether an appropriate
limitation should be read in depends not so much upon one’s view of intellectual property law,
but upon the general question of the courts’ freedom to make implications in statutes. ... In my
view, the problem of the relationship between trade mark and copyright protection is one of some
practical complexity, and I prefer to follow what appears to be the orthodox assumption, that the
two may coexist... That view appears to be consistent with the weight of authority in the United
States.
