## Facts

- Ray Noble composed “The Very Thought of You” and, in 1934, entered a music-publishing agreement with Campbell Connelly & Co. in England.
- The agreement broadly assigned the “full copyright for all countries” for the copyright period “as far as is assignable by law,” including rights Noble “may hereafter become entitled to.”
- The work obtained copyright protection in the United States under a regime providing an initial term and a separate renewal term.
- Before the U.S. renewal term vested, Noble purported to assign the U.S. copyright/renewal rights to another publisher (M. Witmark & Sons).
- Campbell Connelly brought proceedings in England seeking a declaration that the 1934 agreement entitled it, as against Noble, to the benefit of the U.S. renewal term.

## Issues

1. Whether an English-law assignment of “full copyright for all countries” for the copyright period, including after-acquired rights, transfers the author’s later-arising U.S. renewal-term interest to the publisher.
2. Whether, and to what extent, U.S. law (as the law of the country of protection) controls the existence and assignability of the U.S. renewal term, and how that interacts with an English contract purporting to assign worldwide rights.
3. Whether Noble’s later purported grant to a third party could defeat the publisher’s claim under the earlier English agreement.

## Decision

- The Chancery Division (Wilberforce J) ruled for Campbell Connelly and granted declaratory relief.
- The court construed the 1934 agreement as covering U.S. renewal-term rights to the extent those rights were capable of assignment under U.S. law.
- As between Campbell Connelly and Noble, Noble’s subsequent purported assignment of the U.S. renewal rights to another publisher was ineffective and contrary to his earlier contractual undertaking.

## Legal Principles

- The existence and assignability of copyright in a given country are determined by the law of that country (lex loci protectionis), here U.S. law for U.S. renewal rights.
- An English-law contract may validly provide for assignment of after-acquired rights and future interests, operating to transfer the benefit when the interest later vests, subject to any limits imposed by the foreign law governing the right’s assignability.
- Broad language assigning worldwide copyright for the full period “as far as is assignable by law,” together with “all rights” the author may later become entitled to, can capture foreign renewal or extension rights insofar as the foreign law permits advance assignment.
- Where such a contract applies, the author’s later inconsistent grant to a third party cannot, as between the contracting parties, defeat the publisher’s entitlement to the transferred (or promised) future right.

## Conclusion

The court held that an English publishing agreement with expansive worldwide and after-acquired-rights language encompassed the author’s U.S. renewal-term interest to the extent U.S. law allowed assignment, entitling the publisher to a declaration and preventing the author from defeating that entitlement through a later inconsistent grant.


Campbell Connelly & Co. v. Noble, [1963] 1 All E.R. 237 (Ch. 1963)