Moz The Monster v Mr Underbed

A recent spat between former UK Children's Laureate, Chris Riddell and retail giant John Lewis raised interesting questions around the extent of copyright protection with Riddell claiming that John Lewis' highly anticipated Christmas advert bore a resemblance to his 1986 picture book, Mr Underbed.

In order to infringe copyright in the UK, the infringing work must be a direct or indirect copy of the copyright work (i.e. not derived from some unrelated source).  John Lewis has therefore been quick to point out that the storyline of Moz the Monster is based on a universal tale of children being afraid of monsters under the bed – and not derived from Riddell's work.  

In any event, even if Moz the Monster has the same ideas and themes as Mr Underbed, there is no copyright protection for an idea as such. Copyright protects the expression of an idea i.e. the author's particular choice of text and illustration. What must be shown to be copied is the way in which that