Intellectual Property (IP) refers to "creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce," according to www.wipo.int. IP is what's considered in court cases involving infringement. This blog post focuses on court cases in which the intellectual property in question are screenplays.
In the case Benay v. Warner Bros. Entm’t Inc., the brothers Aaron and Matthew Benay sued Warner Bros. for copyright infringement and breach of contract. They claim that they wrote and copyrighted a screenplay entitled The Last Samurai that has striking similarities to the Warner Bros. version of The Last Samurai. The Benays argued that filmmakers copied this screenplay without consent. The claims were granted in favor of the defendants but the Benay brothers won the breach of contract claim when they appealed.
A similar case, A Slice of Pie Productions, LLC v. Wayans Brothers Entertainment was a suit filed against Wayans Brothers in regards to the movie White Chicks. A Slice of Pie Productions, LLC wrote a screenplay called Johnny Bronx where an African American FBI agent uses modern technology to become a white Italian in order to infiltrate the mob. The lawsuit alleges that the movie White Chicks is substantially similar to the screenplay Johnny Bronx which was submitted to a Wayans Brothers Entertainment agent.
The last example is a case between Sophia Stewart and the creators of The Matrix. Although it’s believed that she won her case against the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Bros., there are several articles stating that she didn’t win anything. There is little information about this case, because of the small amount of publicity and the large amount of inaccurate details that were published. What is known is that she sued them for copyright infringement stating that the movie The Matrix and it’s sequels were based off of her work called The Third Eye.
One thing that I noticed from researching each of these cases is the use of the phrase "substantial similarity." This is the standard used by the court system to determine wether or not intellectual property was an original piece of work or a copy. It seems to me that this would be difficult to determine in most instances. It is easier for a plaintiff to prove their case if there is some type of evidence that the accused party received or viewed a copy of the work. There was proof in the case against Wayans Brothers that a copy of Johnny Bronx had been sent to them. In these cases it's easier to prove infringement. There may be cases in which two people just so happen to come up with very similar ideas. It's not unlikely, especially in the horror genre of movies. So kids, the moral of the story is 1. Always copyright your work, 2. Keep records to prove where you sent it, and 3. Don't send it to Warner Bros. or Wayans Brothers because they'll steal it!
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