What is the range of damages for breach of copyright law?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Tom Hopkins Int. Inc. v. Wall & Redekop Realty Ltd., 1985 CanLII 503 (BC CA):

This is not a case like Underwriters’ Survey Bureau v. Massie & Renwick Ltd., 1941 CanLII 278 (FC), [1942] Ex. C.R. 1, 2 Fox. Pat. C. 39 at 57, 1 C.P.R. 207, 224, 8 I.L.R. 321, [1942] 1 D.L.R. 434, where the judgment of Maclean J. reads in part as follows: I cannot escape the conviction that in the circumstances of this case the amount of the damages determined by the Registrar are inadequate, and with great respect, I think the amount fixed by him should be increased. The defendant committed a series of infringements and acts of conversion against the owners of very costly and valuable works in which copyright subsisted, over a period of years, with deliberation, with persistency, with premeditated secrecy in several instances at least, and in many instances its managers and officers expressly directed its own employees and servants to commit the tortious acts of which the plaintiffs complained. While the possession of the plans thus secured, or the copies made thereof, were not perhaps the cause of a loss of insurance business to the plaintiffs, or a gain of insurance business to the defendant, yet they were convenient, useful and valuable facilities employed in the conduct of their defendant’s business over a period of years, and probably their possession would reduce the defendant’s cost of doing business in various sections of the country.

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