A three-member apex court bench, led by Chief Justice Richard Malanjum, allowed their leave to appeal application to set aside a Court of Appeal ruling delivered last year.

The two legal questions to be argued later are:

# if publication itself is sufficient for the legal requirement of causal connection, in order to succeed in a claim over copyright infringement; and,

# is there a legal duty for the court to examine and evaluate both distinct materials, which are the subject matter for the claim of copyright infringement.

On March 21 last year, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by novelist Elias Idris, who claimed Yusof, his actor-director son Syamsul and their company, Skop Production Sdn Bhd, had infringed copyright over the novel.

The novelist, who used the pseudonym Anne Natasha Nita, claimed there were many similarities between his book and the respondents’ movie, “Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam”, in terms of plot, characters and message.

Elias obtained a declaration that the respondents had violated his copyright for his novel and an order for the respondents to pay him damages to be assessed by the High Court.

A three-man panel, led by Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, granted Elias the order after reversing the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s dismissal of his suit.

The bench also set aside a High Court ruling which ordered Elias to pay RM100,000 in damages to the respondents in their counter-claim against him (Elias) for alleged defamation.

The bench further granted Elias an injunction order to prevent the respondents and their agent from further publishing, broadcasting, distributing and reproducing the film without his written consent.

The respondents were also ordered to deliver all infringed copies and goods to Elias or his nominee.

The bench also gave an order for the accounts to be taken to identify profits received from the alleged copyright infringement and monies to be paid to Elias, which included interest.

Elias filed the suit against Yusof, 63, whose real name is Md Yusof Md Aslam; Syamsul, 33; and Skop Production, on Nov 24, 2014.

The defendants filed a countersuit against Elias over his two allegedly defamatory online articles, uploaded on Nov 7 and Nov 16, 2014.

In their defence, filed on Jan 5, 2015, the three said they had never read or even heard of the novel and denied basing the film on it.

Skop Production Sdn Bhd released the movie in 2009.

Lawyer K Periasamy appeared for Elias and counsel Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla for the trio.