Paramount wins legal battle over ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ copyright claims

Paramount Pictures (PARA.O) has emerged victorious in a legal battle over its 2022 blockbuster film Top Gun: Maverick, as a U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles dismissed a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, Reuters reported.

In a ruling on Friday, Judge Percy Anderson deemed the sequel to not be "substantially similar" to Ehud Yonay's 1983 magazine article, Top Guns, which inspired the original Top Gun film depicting the U.S. Navy's Top Gun fighter pilot training school in San Diego.

The heirs of Ehud Yonay, Shosh Yonay and son Yuval Yonay, contended that Paramount owed them a share of the sequel's profits, arguing that the franchise was built upon Yonay's article, which "breathed life into the technical humdrum of a navy base."

Their attorney, Marc Toberoff, announced plans to appeal the decision, stating, "Once Yonay's widow and son exercised their rights [to] reclaim his exhilarating story, Paramount hand-waved them away exclaiming 'What copyright?' It's not a good look."

Responding to the dismissal, Paramount released a statement expressing satisfaction with the court's decision, stating, "We are pleased that the court recognised that plaintiffs' claims were completely without merit."

Top Gun: Maverick, featuring Tom Cruise reprising his iconic role as U.S. Navy test pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, grossed a staggering $1.5 billion worldwide, solidifying its place as Cruise's highest-grossing film and the 12th highest-grossing film according to Box Office Mojo.

The plaintiffs, both hailing from Israel, argued that the character of "Maverick" in the sequel was "derivative" of the nonfictional Top Guns due to similarities in plot, characters, dialogue, settings, and themes.

However, Judge Anderson highlighted that copyright law does not protect factual elements such as real people's identities or familiar plot elements such as pilots embarking on missions. Furthermore, he noted that copyright law does not extend to themes like "the sheer love of flying," or specific dialogue, such as "Fight's on," identified in both works.

In a significant decision, Anderson also ruled that Paramount was not obligated to credit Ehud in the sequel, as it had done in the original Top Gun with a "suggested by" credit. This decision came after the Yonays terminated Paramount's exclusive movie rights to the article in 2020.

Ehud's article, originally published in the May 1983 issue of California magazine, served as the foundation for the iconic film franchise. The case, titled Yonay et al v. Paramount Pictures Corp, was heard in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, under case number 22-03846.

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