By Ginika Igboke
Paramount Pictures prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit over its blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick, with a federal appeals court ruling that the 2022 film did not unlawfully copy material from a magazine article that inspired the original 1986 movie.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, ruled on Jan. 2 that Top Gun: Maverick does not infringe on “Top Guns,” a 1983 nonfiction article written by Ehud Yonay and published in California Magazine. The article chronicled the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, widely known as “Top Gun,” and served as inspiration for the first film.
In affirming a lower court’s decision, the three-judge panel concluded that the sequel did not share substantial protected expression with Yonay’s article. As a result, the plaintiffs failed to establish the level of similarity required to support a copyright infringement claim.
“The panel affirmed the district court’s conclusion that Maverick did not share substantial amounts of the original expression of ‘Top Guns,’ and plaintiffs therefore failed to establish a triable issue as to substantial similarity,” the ruling stated.
Following publication of the article, Yonay granted Paramount rights to use it for a fixed fee and screen credit in the original Top Gun, which starred Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, and Val Kilmer. However, the agreement did not grant Paramount perpetual rights. Under copyright law, authors or their heirs may terminate such agreements after a set period.
After Yonay’s death in 2012, his widow, Shosh Yonay, and son, Yuval Yonay, became the article’s copyright holders. In 2020, they exercised their right to terminate the agreement with Paramount. Two years later, Top Gun: Maverick was released, featuring Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell while mentoring a new generation of fighter pilots.
The Yonays argued that Paramount no longer held rights to the article when the sequel was produced and alleged that the 2022 film reused protected elements from Yonay’s work without compensation or credit. Paramount did not pay the family or credit Yonay in the sequel.
The appeals court rejected those claims. Circuit Judge Eric D. Miller, writing for the panel, acknowledged that the article and the film shared certain similarities but emphasized that copyright law protects original expression—not general ideas, facts, or concepts.
Miller noted that Yonay’s article was a factual account, while Top Gun: Maverick is a fictional narrative, and the two did not share similar plots or protected creative elements. “Facts, ideas, and concepts do not qualify as unlawful appropriation,” he wrote.
The court ultimately found “a lack of similarity in protectable elements of the article,” concluding that the plaintiffs failed to show an original and protectable selection or arrangement of elements that had been copied in the film.
Paramount and attorneys for the Yonay family were contacted for comment.
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