Pao On v Lau Yiu Long

From August 2018 Ms Wilkinson began to monetise the channel. In 2019 gross earnings were over £57,000 and in 2020 nearly £105,000.

The first defendant was set up by Ms Wilkinson as a corporate vehicle for running her business and operated as such from August 2020.

There was a falling out in early November 2020. At this point Mr Costa took issue with the channel’s continued use of the Joint Works and the Disclaimer. He submitted takedown notices to YouTube which led to videos being removed from the DissociaDID channel.

Subsistence of copyright in the Joint Works and the Disclaimer is not in dispute. Mr Costa claims an injunction to restrain the defendants from infringing the copyrights in the Joint Works and Disclaimer, together with damages or an account and related relief.

Ms Wilkinson’s case is that on 16 June 2020 a contract was formed between her and Mr Costa. This was before the Joint Works and the Disclaimer had been created. Ms Wilkinson says that the agreement contained implied terms according to which Mr Costa granted to her, and to her successors and assignees, a perpetual irrevocable licence to use any works created by the two of them on Ms Wilkinson’s YouTube channel. There is also a pleaded defence that Mr Costa effected an equitable assignment of the Joint Works to Ms Wilkinson but that was not pursued.