John Lewis has won a legal copyright battle in the UK High Court after the judge said there was not “a scrap of evidence” that the retailer had copied the idea of using a sneezing dragon.
Children’s author Fay Evans had claimed John Lewis – along with creative ad agency adam&eveDDB, which developed the concept – had copied one of her creations and used it in its 2019 Christmas advert.
A High Court judge has today (Monday 3 April) dismissed the claim, finding no copyright breach and saying there “was not a scrap of evidence” that John Lewis or adam&eveDDB had seen the story before creating their Christmas advert concept.
Evans had originally claimed the company’s two-and-a-half minute Excitable Edgar advert bore “striking similarities” resemblances to her self-published work Fred The Fire-Sneezing Dragon, from 2017.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that… there can have been no copying,” added Judge Clarke, as part of a 40-page ruling which discussed the mythological origins of dragons.
While both stories were about friendly fire-breathing dragons which found it difficult to fit into the human world they lived in, Judge Clarke pointed out that plans for the John Lewis advert were first drawn up in 2016 – a full year before Ms Evans’ book was published.
She also ordered the outcome should be published on the author’s website, which had previously been used to publicise the court case.
John Lewis is currently reviewing its creative agency partnership, with Saatchi & Saatchi London, Wonderhood and WPP in the running.
