Dixon Projects Pty Ltd v Hallmark Homes Pty Ltd

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Dixon Projects Pty Ltd v Hallmark Homes Pty Ltd

[2004] FCA 118

COPYRIGHT - infringement - architectural plans - project homes - whether copyright subsists - whether indirect copying - whether substantial part of work reproduced

Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)

SW Hart & Co Pty Ltd v Edwards Hot Water Systems (1985) 159 CLR 466 discussed
Eagle Homes Pty Ltd v Austec Homes Pty Ltd (1999) 87 FCR 415 (FC) cited
Ancher, Mortlock, Murray & Wooley Pty Ltd v Hooker Homes Pty Ltd [1971] 2 NSWLR 278 considered

DIXON PROJECTS PTY LTD ACN 010 828 172 v HALLMARK HOMES PTY LTD ACN 007 959 524
Q159 OF 2001

COOPER J
BRISBANE
20 FEBRUARY 2004

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
QUEENSLAND DISTRICT REGISTRY	Q159 OF 2001

BETWEEN:	DIXON PROJECTS PTY LTD ACN 010 828 172 APPLICANT
AND:	HALLMARK HOMES PTY LTD ACN 007 959 524 RESPONDENT
JUDGE:	COOPER J
DATE OF ORDER:	20 FEBRUARY 2004
WHERE MADE:	BRISBANE

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1.The application is dismissed.

2.The applicant pay the respondent’s costs of and incidental to the application including reserved costs, to be taxed if not agreed.

Note:Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
QUEENSLAND DISTRICT REGISTRY	Q159 OF 2001

BETWEEN:	DIXON PROJECTS PTY LTD ACN 010 828 172 APPLICANT
AND:	HALLMARK HOMES PTY LTD ACN 007 959 524 RESPONDENT

JUDGE:	COOPER J
DATE:	20 FEBRUARY 2004
PLACE:	BRISBANE

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. The applicant is a project builder.  It claims ownership of plans and drawings of a house known as the Grand Vista (‘the Grand Vista Design’).  The applicant has constructed display homes built to the Grand Vista Design (‘the Grand Vista Houses’).  The applicant claims that at all material times copyright subsisted in the Grand Vista Design and the Grand Vista Houses, and that it was the owner of that copyright.

2. The respondent is a project builder.  It produced plans and drawings for a house known as the Montego (‘the Montego Plans’).  It has built, or caused to be built, houses in accordance with the Montego Plans (‘the Montego Houses’).

3. The applicant alleges that each of the Montego Houses and the Montego Plans reproduces the whole or a substantial part of the Grand Vista Design, in that it is alleged that the layout of accommodation provided and the planning and relationship of the rooms are materially the same in each case.  Accordingly, the applicant alleges that the production of the Montego Plans and the construction of the Montego Houses by the respondent, without the licence of the applicant, infringed its copyright in the Grand Vista Design and the Grand Vista Houses.

4. The applicant also alleges that in marketing houses to be constructed to the Montego Plans, the respondent is representing that the Montego Plans were lawfully produced without copying substantial parts of the works of the applicant, and that the respondent could lawfully build, or…