BBC wins court battle over Daleks

The BBC has won a court battle over the copyright to the Daleks.

A High Court judge yesterday ruled BBC Worldwide had not infringed copyright by publishing a book, the Dalek Survival Guide, on the theme of the Doctor Who characters.

Publisher JHP printed four books containing stories by Dalek creator Terry Nation in the 1960s. Paul Fishman, its current boss, had looked at working with the corporation on a new book in 2001, but the two fell out.

After the Survival Guide came out a year later, Fishman - the son of one of Nation's friends and collaborators - claimed his company owned the copyright to the Daleks.

He claimed the BBC's book was "cheap and nasty" and contained material copied from one of JHP's publications, the Dalek Pocketbook.

However, Mr Justice Norris ruled that, though JHP had a licence to the old original, it was "inherently improbable" that Nation would have given his copyright to the company.

"The Daleks first became known to humankind in 1963 when they appeared in the first series of Doctor Who," he said. "They were some of the most engaging and enduring creations of the fertile mind of the late Terry Nation."

BBC Worldwide welcomed the ruling: "BBC Worldwide has vigorously defended this litigation and we're pleased the matter has now concluded."

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