Following a summary judgment victory for Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (also known as Meghan Markle) in her misuse of private information and copyright case against British tabloid publisher for publishing portions of letter written to her father, High Court in London orders newspapers to publish notices of Markle’s win on their front page.
In the High Court of Justice in London, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, also known as Meghan Markle, brought claims for misuse of her private information and copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of British tabloids The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, for publishing and disseminating five articles relaying, without permission, extracts of a personal letter she had written to her father. In connection with these publications, defendant used headlines reporting, for example, “Meghan’s shattering letter to her father” and that Markle’s father had “broken her heart into a million pieces.”
After striking a number of Markle’s allegations of dishonesty and malicious intent at the initial pleading stage (read our summary of the High Court’s decision here), the High Court in February entered summary judgment in Markle’s favor on defendant’s liability for misuse of private information and on certain aspects of Markle’s copyright claim—subsistence (similar to establishing valid, copyrightable subject matter) and infringement. The High Court left the issue of copyright ownership for trial…
