Author files case over intellectual property theft

The author of a book about titular statues has filed an action for damages against a similarly named man and his publisher, claiming that they have copied his book word for word.

The defendants, author Josef Grech and the director of Dom Communications Ltd, had denied accusations of having plagiarised Joseph Mary Grech’s book on Maltese and Gozitan titular statutes in their response to the judicial protest filed earlier last month.

Joseph Mary Grech had filed proceedings against Josef Grech and Dom Communications, claiming that Josef Grech had exploited the similarity in their names and published a book with an identical title and content to his original 1998 work “Vari Ta Malta u Ghawdex”.

The original official letter, filed by lawyer Emmy Bezzina on behalf of Joseph Mary Grech, had also alleged that Josef Grech’s book contained 80 photos directly scanned from his original work, as well as the same content.

However, in his reply, filed in court, Josef Grech and Doreen Spiteri said they had no connection with Joseph Mary Grech or his book.

Together with the sworn application filed today, Bezzina submitted copies of the two works, the content of which at first glance, appear to be identical.

This is not the first time that Josef Grech has been accused of dishonest practices. On 1 April this year, he was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for defrauding musicians he had hired by paying them with cheques issued on a closed bank account.

The application calls on the court to declare that the Josef Grech’s work was plagiarised and is in fact the intellectual property of Joseph Grech and liquidate damages, both those already suffered as well as potential losses, together with court costs.

It also requests the court order Dom Communications and Josef Grech to “withdraw the publication from the market, issue declarations on all means of communications and publish a notice to that effect on at least six different newspapers and broadcast media.”