City graduate in legal action with store over its ad
AUTHOR SAYS BABY DRAGONS HAVE ‘STRIKING SIMILARITY’
A CHILDREN’s author has launched a legal claim over a John Lewis Christmas advert which she says features a baby dragon which bears a “striking similarity” to a character she created for a book published two years earlier.
Fay Evans worked with illustrator Lisa Williams - a fellow graduate of Leicester’s De Montfort University - to create the character Fred the FireSneezing Dragon for her debut book in 2017.
She says the retailer’s 2019 advert contained a character named Excitable Edgar which she believes is drawn from their work. She has issued legal proceedings in a copyright infringement claim to the specialist Intellectual Property division of the High Court of Justice.
The claim has been served on joint defendants John
Lewis Plc and its advertising agency DDB UK Limited
Ms Evans said she was “inundated” with messages regarding the resemblance of the two characters, within
10 minutes of the advert’s release.
She said: “When I watched the John Lewis Christmas advert for the first time, I was gobsmacked – I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
“The visual resemblance to the main character in Fred The Fire-Sneezing Dragon and the narrative similarity throughout was striking.
“Within 10 minutes of the 2019 John Lewis Christmas advert being released online I was inundated with messages regarding the resemblance to my book.”
Ms Evans, who is now based in Cheshire, created her 2017 book as an illustrated rhyming story about a little green dragon that causes chaos with his uncontrollable fiery emissions.
The solitary dragon is scorned by the human folk around him, until he wins their admiration at the end of the story by emitting a blast of fire which cooks food to perfection.
She said: “I’ve since heard from many readers who genuinely thought I had worked with the makers of the advert and that they were watching Fred’s story on the television.
“I am totally confident in the validity of my claim and have received an overwhelming amount of public support.
“I want to take a stand for all creative artists - including writers, 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.”
Shocked by the likeness, she posted on social media showing an illustration from her book alongside one from the Excitable Edgar picture book, published to accompany the two-and-ahalf minute advert.
She invited followers to spot the difference and generated thousands of social media shares and hundreds of supportive comments. “Even a twoyear-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,” she added. “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.” However, the retailer has said it provided the author with timestamped documents showing the concept for the Christmas campaign was first presented to them in early 2016 one year and seven months before Ms Evans published her book. A spokesperson for John Lewis said: “We strongly deny that we have copied or drawn any inspiration from the book, and will be robustly defending the claim.”
When contacted by the media in December 2019, a spokesperson for John Lewis commented: “There are lots and lots of stories about dragons, but Edgar is an original character developed by our creative agency, as is our story.”
Andy Lee, head of intellectual property at law firm, Brandsmiths, said: “We are very happy to be representing Fay in this David versus Goliath battle.
“The IPEC was established precisely for cases such as this; to give access to justice at a proportionate cost to those who might not be able to otherwise bring a claim, particularly against much larger and well resourced opponents.”
Even a two-year-old girl recognised the dragon in the John Lewis advert as Fred
Author Fay Evans