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ARTICLE · 11 FEBRUARY 2010

Kookaburra has the last laugh

Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
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Justice Jacobson of the Federal Court of Australia last week ruled that the iconic Australian pop song "Down Under", performed and recorded by the group Men at Work, reproduces a substantial part of the children’s song "Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree" ("Kookaburra") and infringes the copyright owned by Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
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Justice Jacobson of the Federal Court of Australia last week ruled that the iconic Australian pop song "Down Under", performed and recorded by the group Men at Work, reproduces a substantial part of the children's song "Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree" ("Kookaburra") and infringes the copyright owned by Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd.

In reaching the conclusion that the flute riff in the "Down Under" composition was a substantial reproduction of "Kookaburra" (a short musical work consisting of four bars), Justice Jacobson considered the musical elements of melody, key, tempo, harmony and structure. With the assistance of expert evidence, he also compared the aural musical elements and the visual features of the notated music.

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