"The dispute centered on the 11-page article published in California Magazine in 1983, which vividly described the experiences of Navy fighter pilots at the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, popularly known as "Top Gun." Following the article's publication, Ehud Yonay granted Paramount all rights to the work, leading to the 1986 release of Top Gun. In 2020, the Yonays terminated the copyright grant by invoking 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3), which allows an author's heirs to terminate certain grants."
"Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay, the widow and son of Ehud Yonay, first brought claims against Paramount in 2022, alleging that the sequel Top Gun: Maverick infringed on the copyright of Ehud Yonay's article, "Top Guns." The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 2024 granted summary judgment for Paramount, agreeing that Maverick did not share "substantial amounts of the article's original expression"
"Following the article's publication, Ehud Yonay granted Paramount all rights to the work, leading to the 1986 release of Top Gun. In 2020, the Yonays terminated the copyright grant by invoking 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3), which allows an author's heirs to terminate certain grants. After Paramount released the sequel in 2022 without crediting or compensating the Yonays, they filed suit for copyright infringement and breach of contract."
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment for Paramount in a copyright and contract dispute brought by heirs of Ehud Yonay. The heirs alleged that Top Gun: Maverick infringed the copyright in a 1983 California Magazine feature titled "Top Guns." The district court found that Maverick did not share substantial amounts of the feature’s original expression and that the depicted pilots and their experiences were factual and therefore unprotected by copyright. The court also found no breach of the 1983 rights agreement with Ehud Yonay. Yonay granted Paramount rights for the 1986 Top Gun film; the heirs terminated that grant under 17 U.S.C. §203(a)(3) in 2020 and sued after the 2022 sequel released without credit or compensation.
Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law
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