Wijesinghe Mahanamahewa and Another v. Austin Canter – sllr 1986 volume 2 page 154

In the case between Austin Canter (Plaintiff) and Wijesinghe Mahanamahewa (Defendant) and another, the court addressed the issue of whether the defendant’s reproduction and adaptation of shorthand symbols, derived from the common Gregg system, infringed the plaintiff’s copyright in the Canter Shorthand System under the Copyright Act 1911. It was held that the elements in question, being either unoriginal or common to the Gregg system and not a substantial part of the plaintiff’s distinctive work, did not meet the threshold for copyright protection. The principle reaffirmed is that copyright protects the expression of original thought, not mere ideas or generic symbols, emphasizing substantiality both in quality and quantity. The decision relied on established case law and statutory interpr