May the Farce be with You: Confusing Sculptures Post-Lucasfilm

This paper examines the copyright law relating to sculptures, particularly focusing on the UK’s decision in Lucasfilm v Ainsworth, which concerns Stormtrooper helmets from the Star Wars franchise, and whether they constituted sculptures under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The UK Supreme Court ruled the helmets not to be sculptures because of their utilitarian purpose as props in a film, meaning the helmets were unprotected by copyright law. This was a high-profile case for intellectual property law, but it unfortunately failed to clarify the already confused area. This paper discusses the statute and case law surrounding sculptures, and to what extent the UK courts successfully applied the law. It is concluded that whilst a great attempt was made to untangle the previously inconsistent case law, the Lucasfilm decision failed to do so.