Jonathan Hill appeared for the successful Defendant in a copyright infringement claim brought by Joshua Rinkoff, a comedian who performs under the name Harry Deansway. Mr Rinkoff claimed to own the copyright in the format of two series of comedy shows called “Shambles” he had produced and released on YouTube. He described the series in his pleadings as “a sitcom series, centred around a live comedy night.” He complained that the Defendant company, a well-known producer of comedy shows, infringed his copyright by its series “Live at the Moth Club” (“LATMC“), which was broadcast on the TV channel Dave.
Recorder Amanda Michaels gave judgment in favour of the Defendant. She found that the format of Shambles was not a work which was capable of being protected by copyright as a dramatic work. The pleaded features set out general ideas at a fairly high level of abstraction and were inadequate to enable anyone to create, perform or reproduce an episode of Shambles. Further, the pleaded features of Shambles were not organised into a unified work which could be performed, which is the essence of a dramatic work.
The Judge held that even if there had been such copyright as claimed, it was not infringed by the Defendant. The alleged similarities between the characters in the instant case did not suggest copying so much as the use of stock characters. Similarly, any plot similarities in the instant case did not suggest that there was indirect or unconscious copying.