Award-winning Irish playwright Ms Marie Jones has successfully defended her authorship of one of the most successful Irish dramas of recent years Stones In His Pockets.
Mr Justice Park, sitting in London, ruled that Ms Pam Brighton, who claimed she had made an "extraordinary" creative contribution to the comedy, did have copyright in a draft opening script of the play.
The judge said that in most respects Ms Brighton's claims failed and ruled that "Miss Jones is in my view the sole owner of the copyright in the 1999 version of Stones in His Pockets".
But, he added: "However, for the future, Ms Brighton, through her copyright in the draft opening script of the play, is a person whose consent is needed for new contracts by Ms Jones to exploit the copyright of the 1999 version."
Belfast-based Ms Brighton, originally from Bradford, claimed damages or an account of profits for alleged infringement of copyright over what has become one of Ireland's most successful stage plays.
Ms Jones had contested the claim.
The judge went to see the play, which is about two extras working on a Hollywood film being shot in County Kerry, at London's New Ambassadors Theatre during the courtroom wrangle.
Belfast-born Ms Jones and Ms Brighton, a director since 1969, first met in 1983 through their work in the theatre and were co-founders in 1991 of the DubbelJoint Theatre Company in Belfast, where the play was first performed in 1996.