Vanuatu / Casos nacionales
John v Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Civil Case No. 742 of 2020
Casos nacionales. La inclusión en esta ficha no convierte una referencia extranjera en una decisión nacional. Se conserva el estado y el alcance de la fuente.
Expediente y fuentes
- Nombre
- John v Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Civil Case No. 742 of 2020
- Cita
- Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Civil Case 742 of 2020
- Tribunal
- Supreme Court of Vanuatu
- Instancia
- primera instancia
- Fechas
- Decisión
- 2021-09-06
- Estado
- resuelto-firmeza-no-verificada
- Resultado
- VT500,000 damages plus VT50,000 costs, payable within 21 days; enforcement conference listed for 2021-09-27.
- Resumen
- The claimant bore the balance-of-probabilities burden. The proposed 32,431,735-vatu multiplication had no statutory or case-law basis; no Bank profit or diminution in value was proved. A broad low-end award was appropriate.
- Antecedentes
- Joseph John, a well-known professional artist with a Diploma in Visual Arts, painted in 2000 a Ni-Vanuatu village gathering with a chief. The Reserve Bank bought the physical artwork soon after creation. Without John's permission, it used part of the painting to mint and issue 4,633,105 twenty-vatu coins from 2015.
- Historia procesal
- John filed a civil copyright claim under Act No. 42 of 2000. The Bank did not contest use and admitted liability; the proceeding reached the Supreme Court only for assessment of damages. John proposed multiplying coins by seven years; the Bank disputed that formula and proposed a low-range award.
- Cuestión jurídica
- What civil damages under s. 34 were proved for admitted infringement, considering material/moral prejudice and attributable profits?
- Criterio
- The claimant bore the balance-of-probabilities burden. The proposed 32,431,735-vatu multiplication had no statutory or case-law basis; no Bank profit or diminution in value was proved. A broad low-end award was appropriate.
- Fundamento decisivo
- Section 34(3) permits but does not compel consideration of material/moral prejudice and infringer profit. The work had significance and John depended on art sales, but evidence of actual loss/profit was absent and use on currency might enhance reputation.
- Límites
- Authorship, originality and subsistence were not litigated; the Bank admitted liability. The judgment does not address AI, computer generation, registration, prompts, producer status or separable human contributions.
- Relevancia
- doctrina-general
- Referencias relacionadas
- Peso del precedente
- National Supreme Court first-instance judgment; persuasive/first-instance weight on s. 34 damages, not a holding on the present AI-authorship issue. Integración/votación: Justice Dudley Aru, single judge; no vote.
- Fuente
- Referencia
- John v Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Civil Case No. 742 of 2020
- Enlace
- Consultar fuente
- Autoridad
- Supreme Court of Vanuatu
- Tipo
- national_doctrine_general_ordinary_human_authorship_not_genai
- Fecha de comprobación
- 2026-08-30
- Localizador
- metadata; paras. 1-3 (facts/posture), 7-12 (rule/reasoning), 13-14 (orders)
- Verificación documentada
- Sí