'Top Gun: Maverick' is accused of copyright infringement

Did Paramount commit copyright infringement by releasing

two years after its license to the original story expired?

This is the question that the California federal court will have to answer.

In the 1980s, the studio had obtained the rights to make

, whose story was inspired by Ehud Yonay 's 1983

article titled

.

Only, according to Shosh and Yuval Yonay, the writer's widow and son, the rights to this article reverted to them in January 2020, according to US copyright law.

In this complaint, relayed by the BBC, they claim to have warned Paramount in 2018 that their license would expire "in two years".

"Unfounded accusation"

The production of

was launched that same year, for a release scheduled for 2020. Paramount then still had the rights to exploit the story.

The Covid-19 pandemic, however, forced them to postpone the broadcast for two years, Tom Cruise and the producers wanting the film to be available in theaters and refusing offers from streaming platforms.

A winning bet, since the feature film breaks all records, having already collected 548 million dollars during its first 10 days of exploitation in the world.

For the studio, the accusations of the heirs of Ehud Yonay are therefore “unfounded” and Paramount intends to defend itself “vigorously” at the bar.

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