Major IP row heads to court

Fremantle’s Israeli production company Abot Hameiri is claiming that All Against 1, produced by Banijay Nordisk for DR1, has ripped off its format Are You Smarter Than The Crowd? (now titled Best Of All). The company has filed for breach of confidence and copyright infringement, claiming £40,000 in damages.

Banijay responded to the claim on 9 November, saying the firm will be counter-claiming against Abot Hameiri “for a declaration of non-infringement and damages for their attempt to damage Banijay’s format and current and potential sales”.

The French media company said it is “surprised and offended” by the claim and maintains that entertainment show All Against 1 is a collaboration between Nordisk Film TV Denmark, Nordisk Film TV Norway and Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, and is based on Norwegian entertainment format King Of Chess.

Frapa co-chair Jan Salling described the conflict as the highest-profile copycat dispute to become public, in his experience.

The exec, who is also an executive consultant for Nordic World and chief executive of Missing Link Media, said the 15-year-old organisation has handled about 50 infringement claims, but has yet to see a case involving such major industry players.

More often, the group encounters smaller producers who do not follow through because they cannot afford the legal costs.

“It’s seldom that we see big cases [but] we also know a lot of small producers give up and they don’t go to court,” he told Broadcast.

“They say, ‘I’m a small player and they’re a big fish. I can’t afford a lawyer, I can’t do anything, so I’ll just move on and try and protect my ideas a bit better next time.’”

He also urged producers to do all they can to protect their IP. “If you don’t have evidence of your creative process, you don’t have a case. You need to be able to prove when you came across the idea and have it officially registered somewhere,” he said.

Abot Hameiri said this week that it pitched Are You Smarter Than The Crowd? to Banijay execs at Mip TV in 2014 and had “numerous conversations following the pitch”.

“At Banijay’s request, Abot Hameiri followed up this first meeting by sending a detailed treatment and sizzle tape, which Banijay reviewed at its content meeting and creative board, before advising Abot Hameiri they did not want to move forward with it,” the company said in a statement.

The Israeli firm also claimed that days ahead of Mipcom, Banijay denied infringement and said there is no confidentiality in a format pitch that is not protected by a non-disclosure agreement.

Frapa hosts a format registry for its members and Salling said it is important for the industry to trust one another and share ideas “without risking being ripped off ” and without the need for “massive non-disclosure agreements”.

Overall, high-profile cases over IP are rare, with a recent exception being Talpa’s legal proceedings against former The Voice Of China partner Star China for unlawful use of the format.

At last month’s Mipcom, Fremantle Media director of global entertainment Rob Clark told Broadcast that, despite the All Against 1 complaint, format theft is not very common and most broadcasters – even in territories that didn’t previously adhere to format licences – are “toeing the line”.

Salling agreed that IP theft is not a “huge issue”.

“It’s not a massive problem. Thousands of formats are traded every day, year-round, and shared and dealt with, and it’s seldom that we see big cases,” he said.

“Format development is a group procedure and things evolve over time, but you need to respect where the chime of the original idea came from. Even if what you end up with is 90% different from where [you] started, you need to respect where it started.”