Wife Swap Show Suit

By Andrew Raff on December 16, 2004 5:55 PM | 1 Comment

The NY Times reports: Lawsuit Accuses Fox of Copying Wife-Swap Show

The British production company that created the reality series "Wife Swap" and sold it to ABC filed suit against Fox yesterday, charging that its reality series "Trading Spouses" was a "blatant and wholesale copycat" of the British show.

Via The Trademark Blog, see "Reality Check: When Will 2 TV Shows in the Same Genre Be Considered Substantially Similar Under Copyright Law?" from 21 Entertainment and Sports Lawyer 2 (Summer 2003).

1 Comment

Traverse City Attorney | December 17, 2004 4:32 PM

Copying is the truest form of flattery. It will be interesting to see where this lawsuit ends up going. So much of what is going on in the media is pure 'cut and paste.' My guess is that that the lawsuit will settle. The fences on copying TC show formats will remain uncertain.

Enrico Schaefer, Traverse City Attorney

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