According to the plaintiffs’ allegations, Ehud Yonay published in April 1983 a work entitled “Top Guns” in an issue of California magazine and registered it in the U.S. Copyright Office later that year. The aforementioned work would have based the first film in the franchise and even Paramount guaranteed its exclusive rights to the cinema.
But the Yonays (the author’s heirs) claim that they have again become the sole copyright owners for the story in 2020, invoking a provision entitled “35-year law” of US law that allows artists to transfer copyrights to themselves again. his works 35 years later.
We will certainly see many more chapters for this case, but it demonstrates the increasing importance of companies being attentive to the clearance of issues related to third party Intellectual Property before launching their works, products or services on the market.
