Loeb & Loeb Secures Copyright Victory for Showtime in ‘Big C’ Idea Theft Suit

Loeb & Loeb LLP obtained summary judgment on behalf of clients Showtime Networks Inc. and Darlene Hunt, creator and head writer of the Showtime original television series The Big C, in a copyright case alleging that the series infringed another writer’s screenplay.

Plaintiff, screenwriter Nancy Radin, filed suit in November 2010, claiming that Loeb’s clients had accessed her screenplay, Quality of Life, which was centered around her personal experience with breast cancer, and that the Defendants used her screenplay in connection with their creation of The Big C, a television series about a woman living with cancer.

Judge John Kronstadt in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California ruled that Radin had not proven that the defendants had read Quality of Life or accessed the copyrighted work before the pilot for The Big C was written. The Plaintiff argued that her work was “strikingly similar” to the television series, The Big C, and that her weak evidence of access should be disregarded based on that purported striking similarity. Judge Kronstadt rejected her argument, holding that the works were far from “strikingly similar.” Therefore, he granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

Loeb & Loeb partners David Grossman and Jonathan Zavin represented Showtime and Hunt in the suit.