The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court of the High Court of England & Wales has recently considered whether TV formats are protected by copyright. Joshua Rinkoff, a writer, comedian and creator of the show “Shambles” alleged that Baby Cow Productions Ltd had copied the format of the show in its production of “Live at the Moth Club” (LATMC). The claim was issued in May 2023.
Shambles is a sitcom show about a live comedy night, with short clips of stand-up comedy acts interspersed with backstage footage. Although Mr Rinkoff acknowledged that the features on their own would not constitute a claim, the combination of the different types of the scenes is what Mr Rinkoff’s solicitors claimed was protected by copyright, specifically as a dramatic work. Mr Rinkoff alleged copyright infringement on the basis that Baby Cow’s LATMC show was of the same format, save that their clips are longer than those in Shambles, and because Mr Majendie, the creator of LATMC, was familiar with Mr Rinkoff.
Before deciding the question of infringement, the court had to first determine whether any copyright was subsisting in the format of Shambles. However, after considering the pleaded combination of the eight alleged unique features in the programme, the court held that the combination could not constitute a dramatic work because all eight features were not present in all episodes, they were not consistently present enough to be reproduced as a recognised form and therefore were not organised as one element that could be performed. Overall, the court decided that there was no copyright in the format of the TV show, and the court held that the similarities between the shows were general and not uncommon, thus the infringement claim failed.
It should be noted that neither party’s Counsel in the case could find any UK case law that successfully argued a TV format to be a dramatic work. This case may add some context for the scope of the copyright subsisting in TV formats for future claims.
If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
