John Lewis in High Court over Christmas TV dragon
Trial begins between the retail giant and a children’s book author | Author accuses John Lewis of copying her fire-breathing dragon in its 2019 advert, which bears a “striking similarity” to her own creation.
British retailer John Lewis has become famous for its inventive Christmas TV adverts, but today it will go head to head with a children’s book author in the English High Court over the alleged copying of a fire-breathing dragon.
Author Fay Evans sued John Lewis and its creative agency adam&eveDDB in November 2021, following the release of its “ Excitable Edgar” commercial in the run up to Christmas 2019.
The trial was announced 12 months later and the case is being heard in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC, a division of the High Court of England and Wales) today and tomorrow (January 30-31).
Evans claims that the retailer’s advert bears a “striking similarity” to her debut picture book, “ Fred The Fire-Sneezing Dragon”, which she self-published in September 2017.
The book is an illustrated rhyming tale about a small green dragon called Fred that causes chaos with his uncontrollable fire breathing. Fred is scorned by the humans around him, until he cooks food “to perfection” with his fire.
John Lewis’s advert features a small, fire-sneezing dragon called Excitable Edgar whose presence to the humans around him is alarming until he manages to cook a Christmas pudding to bring to the Christmas dinner table.
Evans, based in Cheshire, England, said that when she saw the commercial for the first time, she was “gobsmacked”.
“I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing unfold before me. The visual resemblance to the main character in ‘Fred The Fire-Sneezing Dragon’ and the narrative similarity throughout was striking.”
She added: “As soon as the Excitable Edgar advert was released online, I was inundated with messages from friends, followers and fans of fire-sneezing Fred. Even a two-year-old girl recognised the dragon in the John Lewis advert as Fred, the main character from her favourite book, when she watched it on TV with her mum.
“I was also contacted by a primary school teacher who told me her entire class of six and seven year olds genuinely thought that Fred had made it on to television.”
She said in a statement that she had “received an overwhelming amount of public support” and that she is “proud to be taking a stand for fellow creative artists—including authors, illustrators and musicians”.
“Whether they are relatively unknown or at the top of their game, the same principle applies. The original creative work we strive with all our heart to develop and publish is fundamentally protected by the law of copyright.”
John Lewis said in a press statement: "As the trial is ongoing we are unable to comment other than to say that we strongly dispute the allegations being made against us."
The John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s largest employee-owned business and parent company of two British retail brands—John Lewis and Waitrose.
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