Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
They say great minds think alike, but how do we determine the difference between thinking alike and stealing ideas? Thanks to copyright and trademark laws, some ideas are given a certain level of protection in this country, although the line between stealing an idea and having the same (or a similar) idea can get very blurry. This is especially true of creative professions, such as comedy.
According to a recent lawsuit filed against Conan O’Brien and the writers of his show, at least five of the jokes used in some of O’Brien’s opening monologues were stolen from Alex Kaseberg’s blog. Kaseberg is a freelance comedy writer who claims to have written comedy for Jay Leno, as well as several publications.
According to Kaseberg, the jokes in question allegedly appeared on his blog from December 2014 to June 2015 and it wasn’t long afterwards that they started appearing in the opening monologues of O’Brien’s late-night show on TBS.
One of the examples listed in the complaint includes a joke about the University of Alabama-Birmingham cancelling its football program. Aside from changing the name of a second football team, the joke appeared almost word for word on O’Brien’s show the day after Kaseberg posted it on his blog. Both the similarity between the two jokes and the timing seem a bit too much to be taken for mere coincidence and the judge presiding over the case agreed. Continue reading ›