What is the 'it'?

When I saw that the High Court yesterday granted special leave to appeal in a matter titled “Taylor v Killer Queen LLC”, my heart skipped a beat: are the Justices taking on a case in which Roger Taylor, the drummer of Queen, is suing some hinky antipodean Queen tribute band?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is “no”, but the truth is perhaps only slightly less bizarre.

I may not have this entirely right, but it seems as if Taylor v Killer Queen LLC is a case in which a person whose real name is not “Katy Perry” has been locked in a marathon legal struggle against someone whose real name is “Katie Perry” (now Katie Taylor) over who has the right to sell clothing under the brand name of Katie (or, as the case may be, Katy) Perry. As I understand it (and, again, I could be wrong), at trial the person whose real name is Katie Perry won and the person whose real name is not Katy Perry lost. However, on appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court things went the other way: the person whose real name is not Katy Perry won and the person whose real name is Katie Perry lost.

Now, I’m no judge (lol), but on the face of things it’s hard to see how someone can be stopped from selling clothing under their own (real) name, particularly by someone whose similar name is a stage name, and whose reputation is for the most part in a different field of commerce, namely making music.

But time will tell, and the High Court will ultimately rule. This is as it should be.

What has this got to do with proofing or editing? Absolutely nothing, as we sit here now. But it will have – for me, anyway – in a few months’ time, when I am working on the judgment (or judgments) in the case and trying to get my head around the various names in order to make sure the judges don’t inadvertently confuse their Katies with their Katys. (It’s a living.)

For now, though, I’m just disappointed that we won’t have the three surviving members of Queen (rock royalty, literally) sitting in the front row of the High Court, absorbed in the dry and complex legal arguments that will not doubt be expounded at the hearing of the case. Another time, perhaps; the whole tribute band thing does seem to be getting a bit out of hand.