Appeal court to hear Yellow Pages row

A protracted legal battle between Yellow Pages Group and Australian company Yellowbook.com.au over intellectual property rights is heading to the Court of Appeal.

Plaintiffs Yellow Pages and YPG IP, which owns the registered trade marks for Yellow Pages and White Pages as well as associated domain names, filed proceedings against the Australian company and its head of advertising, marketing and design David Khoury in May 2007, alleging infringements under the Copyright Act.

The Yellow Pages Group claimed the Australian company breached copyright by reproducing YPG's listings and other classification data and distributing a Yellow Book directory and Yellow Duck directory of businesses.

Other causes of action allege trademark infringements, which include the colour yellow as used for its directories and breach of the Fair Trading Act.

The defendants deny any copyright breach saying the works are simply a database comprised from public information and that no skill or judgment was required to compile them.

The Australian company's lawyer, Auckland-based IP expert Clive Elliott, has already raised in the courts the Federal Court of Australia decision in a similar case in which Telstra alleged a copyright breach against Phone Directories Company.

But the Federal Court said there was no copyright because they were not original literary works.

The row was to have had a full hearing in the High Court at Auckland next month but that's been delayed following a case management conference today because of a pending hearing on two earlier decisions relating to the case.

Justice Mark Cooper delivered two decisions - one on May 31 and another on July 28 - ordering both parties to give paperwork each other requested on information about the databases.

''We're basically saying we want to know who the author of this database is and they're saying they don't have to provide that, '' Mr Elliott said.

A Court of Appeal hearing is expected early next year however YPG could still apply to have the trademark issue only dealt with separately by the High Court before then.

- © Fairfax NZ News