[colcool007]

Following on from my post on Sunday, I wonder if anyone knows if any company picked up the copyright on the back catalogue of Wells, Gardner, Darton and Co?

The reason I ask is that if no one has, that could mean all of the Micron stuff is Public Domain as it has been 33 years since they went into liquidation.

[Andrew999]

I do not claim to be any kind of expert in copyright law but I'm guessing this would come under the Orphan Works Directive of the EU:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Works_Directive

I've done some research and discovered that Darton died way back in 1936 so anything he wrote himself is out of copyright.

WGD last produced accounts in 1982 so they have been liquidated for thirty-seven years - yet, I have found no evidence on the web myself that their copyrights were sold on by the administrators. If others can verify this, I think there's a good chance this might be considered an orphan situation

[Andrew999]

If this does come under orphan works, this might be useful:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/copyright-orphan-works

[colcool007]

Andrew, only one small change to your post.  The last Micron publication that we can find are from July 1985 so it is interesting that they are listed as going into compulsory liquidation as of June 1984.  The more I dig, the more fascinating it all becomes.

[Andrew999]

Yes, all very interesting indeed. I'm guessing they started getting into financial trouble around 1980-82 and then collapsed a bit later. As a private limited company, it is unlikely in the 1980s that their assets or intellectual property were sold on after the point of collapse - a small business in Horsham run on a shoestring, not very likely!

I'm also guessing (but it's very likely) that any copyright on the material rested with the publisher and not the artist or writer - I believe this was common at that time. Others may be able to correct that view if I've got it wrong. That makes it easier.

I'm not an expert but on the surface it looks like these could be considered orphan works. You might need to search the EU database and then obtain a licence from the UK government? (The experts behind CBR might be able to offer better advice) I'm guessing this represents one body of work (ie a