High Court puts copyright infringer to the sword

Christchurch man Julian Meates has won a landmark High Court copyright duel against sports store Champions of the World over Canterbury Crusaders swords.

Mr Meates said the foam sword wielded by thousands of rugby fans was the one he designed, only for it to be copied by the Champions of the World chain.

In a decision released yesterday, Justice John Hansen ruled that Mr Meates and family companies connected with his father, 1949-50 All Black Kevin Meates, held the copyright for the iconic foam swords and for plastic trumpets used to annoy opposition fans.

The company behind Champions of the World, Resport Ltd, now faces handing over all the profits it has made from the swords and trumpets in the past three years, as well as paying the Meates companies' legal bills, estimated at more than $200,000.

Julian Meates said the family companies began supplying the swords to the Canterbury Rugby Union just as the Crusaders began their dominance of the Super 12.

He said he was filled with pride when Crusaders fans waved the foam swords he had invented. But pride was replaced by shock when he learned a rival company had taken his design. Now he felt vindicated.

Mr Meates realised his design had been copied in 2002, when he was living in Wellington and watched a Crusaders match on television.

"It was the day of the sword. They'd given away a large number of swords, which the crowd were waving round," he said.

"I thought that this was exactly what I wanted, to get everyone in the crowd waving them. The next time I spoke to my brother, Mark, I said to him that the swords looked good. He said they weren't ours."

Mr Meates' suspicions were confirmed when he placed his sword alongside one from Resport. His sword's computer-generated handle curves were identical to those of the Resport model.

He said the family did not want a court battle that might besmirch the name of Canterbury rugby so it tried to settle the claim for a five-figure sum - the exact total is confidential - a year ago. Resport opted to contest the claim in court.

In the High Court, Resport said the sword and trumpet designs were insufficiently unique to be capable of being copyrighted, but also that, if copyright existed, then Mr Meates had copied it from someone else.

The company also claimed Mark Meates had misled it about who held the copyright when a joint-venture company was dissolved.

All the defences were rejected by Justice Hansen, who ruled that copyright was simply not considered by Resport before it independently sourced swords and trumpets.

The court was not required to consider profits and damages but Justice Hansen said Resport "obviously will have to account for profits in relation to sales of both the infringing swords and trumpets".

That issue, together with legal costs, was adjourned for negotiation between the Meates family companies and Resport.

- NZPA