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Intellectual property

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Business defends employee’s copyright claim

Philosophical belief

Under the Equality Act 2010(EA) “philosophical belief” is a protected characteristic. The EA doesn’t state what amounts to a protected philosophical belief; instead, five criteria must all be met. These are that the belief:

• is genuinely held
• is more than an opinion or viewpoint
• relates to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour
• has a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance
• is worthy of respect in a democratic society, and compatible with human dignity and the fundamental rights of others.

Case law

It is unlawful to discriminate against an employee or a worker because they hold (or don’t hold) a particular philosophical belief. In Gray v Mulberry Company (Design) Ltd 2019 Ms Gray (G) had been employed as a market support assistant by Mulberry (M). To protect its intellectual property rights, M required all employees to sign a copyright agreement.

Agreement detail

The agreement stated that M would be the legal owner of all copyright work created in the course of employment, even if it didn’t relate to M’s business or its business interests. G, who was a writer and filmmaker in her own time, refused to sign the agreement. G believed that she should own all legal rights to her creative work; those rights shouldn’t belong to M.

Expensive dispute

This issue couldn’t be resolved and G was dismissed. She claimed discrimination under the EA and it ended up at the Court of Appeal (see The next step ). It’s now confirmed that G’s beliefs about copyright ownership did not amount to a protected belief capable of protection under the EA .

Pro business. This is a helpful ruling but the expensive and lengthy court process could probably have been avoided. How might this have been done?

Tip 1. Generally speaking, you don’t need a standalone contractual agreement to protect your intellectual property that is created by an employee during the course of their employment. You automatically own it. Nevertheless, it is sensible to make this point clear in the employment contract.

Tip 2. You can do this with an intellectual property clause (see The next step ). It will be binding from day one of employment.

Tip 3. In this case, the contentious issue was that M was trying to claim ownership of everything created by G. If a creation has nothing to do with you, e.g. you make widgets and an employee writes novels in their spare time, don’t attempt to claim ownership. A court is unlikely to side with you and it can trigger the breakdown of the employment relationship.

For the Court of Appeal’s ruling in this case and an intellectual property clause, visit http://tipsandadvice-business/download (CD 21.05.07).