Paramount has won a copyright lawsuit filed by the heirs of the author of a 1983 magazine story that inspired the original “Top Gun” film claiming that the studio proceeded with the sequel without renegotiating a new license.

Ehud Yonay, the late author of a 1983 magazine story titled “Top Guns” about the U.S. Navy’s fighter pilot training school, served as the inspiration for the first movie starring Tom Cruise, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Yonay’s heirs, Shosh and Yuval Yonay, accused the studio of producing the 2022 sequel without securing the rights to the original story. They sought damages and requested an injunction on the film’s profits, estimated at $1.4 billion.

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson dismissed the case, stating the plot, theme, setting, and dialogue of the film were “largely dissimilar” from the article. Additionally, the judge noted any factual similarities between the two works are not protected by copyright law.

“We respectfully disagree with the ruling, particularly on summary judgment, and will exercise our right of appeal to the 9th Circuit,” copyright attorney Marc Toberoff, who is representing the plaintiffs, told Entertainment Weekly in a statement, adding they will be seeking appeal.

“Paramount’s actions speak much louder than its counsel’s words,” he continued. “In 1983, soon after Ehud Yonay’s cinematic Top Guns story appeared in California Magazine, Paramount literally raced to lock up the story’s copyright to the exclusion of other Studios. In the words of Top Gun’s producers Simpson/Bruckheimer (in an interview on Top Gun’s origin): ‘We got to get this. We got to buy this,’ ‘Get on the phone with California Magazine. We want this right away.’

“And unsurprisingly Yonay received credit on the resulting derivative film, Top Gun, spawning a lucrative franchise for the studio.”

Toberoff continued, “Yet once Yonay’s widow and son exercised the rights Congress gave them in the Copyright Act to reclaim the author’s captivating story, Paramount hand-waived them away exclaiming ‘What copyright?’ It’s just not a good look.”

Paramount secured the film rights to Ehud’s article for the original “Top Gun” released in 1986. However, following Ehud’s death in 2012, his widow and son terminated the company’s copyright to the work in 2018. Paramount argued the family’s lawsuit failed to sufficiently demonstrate that Ehud’s work bore substantial similarity in protectable expression to Paramount Pictures’ “Top Gun: Maverick.”

“To the contrary, any similarity between these vastly different works derives from the fact that ‘Top Gun’ is an actual naval training facility,” the filing read. “Plaintiffs do not have a monopoly over works about ‘Top Gun.’”

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