Temple Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd and another [2012] EWPCC 1, [2012]
All ER (D) 49 (Jun)
In assessing the scope of photographic content, it was necessary to consider three aspects in which there was room for originality in photography: (i) aspects residing in specialities of angle of shot, light and shade, exposure and effects, and so on; (ii) aspects residing in the creation of the scene to be photographed, and; (iii) aspects deriving from being in the right place at the right time. There was clearly room for originality in (i). Taken together, (ii) and (iii) made it clear that the composition of a photograph was capable of being a source of originality. Composition could derive from angle of shot, field of view or the elements which the photographer had created and which arose from being in the right place at the right time. Ultimately, composition would be the product of the skill and labour, or intellectual creation,
of a photographer.
Copyright would be infringed by reproducing the whole or a substantial part of a work in a material form. It was
