Meghan Markle finally wins battle of copyright claims over father’s letter
NEWS
Meghan Markle finally wins battle of copyright claims over father’s letter
By Pallavi Paul
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle had filed for copyright infringement in the High Court of England, against the publisher of ‘Mail on Sunday’ and ‘MailOnline’, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), over publication of specified parts of a handwritten letter to her father Thomas Markle. The High Court judge had initially given a summary judgement and ruled against ANL stating that the letter was ‘personal and private’ and further ordered ANL to print a statement on the front page of the newspaper within a time period of one week, stating it infringed the
NEWS
By Pallavi Paul
Duchess of Sussex’s copyright by publishing parts of the letter to her father, and that would be further continued to Page 3 of the newspaper. ANL had argued that the former secretary of the Duke and Duchess was the co-author of the letter. The former secretary empathically denied being the co-author and stated that he never drafted or claimed to have drafted any parts of the letter thereby asserting no copyright in any part of the letter. The Court gave a final order that majority of parts of the letter published were inherently personal and private and the disclosures made were manifestly excessive and hence unlawful. The Duchess won her copyright case completely at the hearing on 05th May, 2021.
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