arsenette
Administrator
Rambling Rican
Posts: 16,617
Staff Member
|
Post by arsenette on Dec 22, 2011 3:58:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by TCM on Dec 22, 2011 17:44:07 GMT -5
I knew it was a settlement before clicking lol. No one wants to waste more time than they need, regardless if they were in the right/wrong.
|
|
|
Post by jfeathe on Dec 22, 2011 20:07:07 GMT -5
I recently finished a semester of business law and I'm glad there was an update to this story so I could look at it again.
Under normal circumstances, it would most likely be determined that Takeshi's Castle wasn't really copied and the lawsuit would be thrown out.
HOWEVER, becuase ABC put their intentions in writing, they are 100% on the hook. Putting it in writing was enough to show their intent to copy even though they probably didn't really copy anything. Honestly, if they didn't write anything down, I don't think TBS would have a case.
This is very similar to the McDonalds "spilled coffee on the crotch story". Although the lady probably wouldn't have won under normal circumstances, McDonalds actually stated in writing that they knew their coffee was heated to a dangerously high temperature. McDonald's also did a cost-benefit analysis where they determined they would spend less on injury lawsuits from the superheated coffee than they would on giving refunds/new coffee to customers who complained it was too cold.
In other words, the fact that it was in writing is the bottom line. It doesn't matter that Wipeout isn't really a knockoff- ABC wrote it in corporate documents so that's it.
|
|
arsenette
Administrator
Rambling Rican
Posts: 16,617
Staff Member
|
Post by arsenette on Dec 23, 2011 3:15:19 GMT -5
Actually jfeathe yes and no. The previous rulings (including the initial order to dismiss) stated that there was enough evidence given by TBS WITHOUT the damning memos on letterhead specifically stating to do that to continue to a trial (albeit barely) but the memos did cement it since the initial season and all the promos to that point made it look like they were doing another MXC. Once the other allegations of the Google mess that ABC did the judge suggested it go to another lawsuit since it was a different thing altogether (and TBS did filing a few months after that). No word on how that worked out of if this was included. I would think it would have showed in the docket for this one but who knows.. that might still be going.
|
|