Federal Court dismisses Vawdrey trailer appeal

The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by Vawdrey Australia Pty Ltd (”Vawdrey”), confirming that Vawdrey (a trailer manufacturer) infringed copyright by indirectly copying the drawings of Krueger Transport Equipment’s “load constraint system” for cargo.

In his consideration of whether a “substantial part” was reproduced, Lindgren J draws on the approach of the High Court in the IceTV case, emphasising the importance of authorship and finding that the Krueger sketches were “original”.  In their joint judgement, Moore and Bennett JJ found that the Vawdrey drawing used “substantially the same form of expression” as the Krueger drawings.

It was also confirmed that there was sufficient causal connection between the copyright infringement and the damage suffered by Krueger.

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Vawdrey Australia Pty Ltd v Krueger Transport Equipment Pty Ltd [2009] FCAFC 156