The topic was inspired by a friend of mine who posted on Facebook about his crowdfunding effort to fund production of a game show with a similar format to a formerly-broadcast game show. (Because of the private nature of Facebook as well as preventing the thread from devolving into legal advice, the friend's name and the shows involved will not be identified.) I'm curious, as a matter of general discussion, what the IP considerations are for similar game show formats. Here's what I know:
- This thread has a broken link which might have been relevant.
- Another archive thread with a broken link, referring to Barris-Fraser Enters. v. Goodston-Todman Enters., Ltd. litigation over Bamboozle. The copyright analysis decision is here. Google Scholar has a decision from an earlier stage in the litigation.
- Wink Martindale said that Debt changed its format in response to litigation because the format was too similar to Jeopardy! (I don't think he provided any specific details.)
- 17 U.S.C. §102(b) states that "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work."
I was curious about your thoughts, especially from those of you with inside knowledge of the entertainment industry.
