Poetic Justice For Enthusiastic Copyright Claim

A dispute over a Dylan Thomas photograph shows the perils of accessible litigation

Dylan Thomas might well have appreciated the irony of a cropped version of his wedding photograph in 1947 being used to advertise Welsh holiday cottages. 'Wales: The land of my fathers,' the poet once said. 'My fathers can have it!'

The use of said photo was the subject matter of an action in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC). The copyright case, Pablo Star Media Ltd v Bowen [2017] EWHC 2451, resulted in defeat for the claimant but was then appealed.

It is not, however, the specific issues that are of interest here, but rather the question about everyone having their say in court – and the cost to the public purse in them doing so.