Melway Publishing Pty Ltd v Robert Hicks Pty Ltd (Trading as Auto Fashions Australia) M1/2000

Melway Publishing Pty Ltd appealed to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Full Federal Court concerning the infringement of a copyright in a street directory. The dispute arose from the reproduction of a map from Melway's directory in a publication by Robert Hicks Pty Ltd, trading as Auto Fashions Australia. Melway alleged that Auto Fashions had infringed its copyright in the map by reproducing it without authorisation.

The High Court was required to determine whether the reproduction of a map from Melway's street directory by Auto Fashions constituted an infringement of copyright. Specifically, the court considered whether the map was an original work for the purposes of copyright law and, if so, whether Auto Fashions had copied a substantial part of that original work. The question of whether the map possessed sufficient originality to attract copyright protection was central to the appeal.

The High Court, in a majority decision, held that the map was an original work and that Auto Fashions had infringed Melway's copyright. The court reasoned that originality in copyright law does not require novelty or invention but rather that the work originates from the author and is not copied. The selection, arrangement, and presentation of geographical information in the map, even if based on existing data, demonstrated sufficient skill, labour, and judgment to qualify as an original work. The court found that the reproduction by Auto Fashions was of a substantial part of the map, thereby constituting infringement.