Paramount wins major legal victory over 'Top Gun: Maverick' copyright claims from writer's family

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A federal appeals court on Friday tossed a copyright lawsuit claiming Tom Cruise’s 2022 hit sequel "Top Gun: Maverick" improperly used material from a magazine article that inspired the original 1986 film.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that "Top Gun: Maverick" was not similar enough to Ehud Yonay's 1983 article "Top Guns," about the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, for Paramount to have breached its 1983 agreement with the writer.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson for the Central District of California previously dismissed the case in 2024.

California Magazine published "Top Guns," an 11-page article written by Yonay in 1983, which described the Fighter Weapons School, later renamed the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program, a Navy program that teaches advanced air-combat tactics.

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Shortly after "Top Guns" was published, Yonay granted Paramount all rights to the article, accepting a fixed payment with the condition that he would be credited in any movies "substantially based upon or adapted from" the article. 

Paramount credited Yonay in the first movie, but following Yonay's death in 2012, his widow and son took over the copyright and terminated the agreement with Paramount.

Two years later, in 2022, Paramount released "Top Gun: Maverick," a sequel to the original movie, which raked in $160.5 million in its first four days.

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Paramount did not compensate or credit the Yonays, spurring a lawsuit filed in the Central District of California.

The court found "Top Guns" and "Top Gun: Maverick" were not "substantially similar," as required to establish copyright infringement. 

While the works had "some similarities," the court explained, those similarities were "based on unprotected elements" like facts about the Top Gun program, "general plot ideas, [and] familiar stock scenes and themes."

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Paramount did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

The Yonays could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.

She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.