A company that provided services to the State of Israel contended that the State infringed upon its copyrights in the products that are deemed its intellectual property, after the end of the term of the agreement.
The Court rejected the claim and determined that no copyright was breached. In order for a work to be protected by law, it must meet the requirement of originality. Copying a work is taking essential parts from the original work, when the test is a qualitative one. Here, although the products meet the requirement of originality and are therefore under the protection of the law, the copied products are not an original work of the company but an "integrated" work of the two parties even though it included materials created by the company prior to the contract. Therefore, the copying action does not meet the qualitative requirement. In addition, the engagement agreement did not limit the State's right to use integrated products, and therefore no copyright was breached.