Copycat Shows

Roughly defined, intellectual property refers to the grant of exclusive rights to certain owners with regard to the use of incorporeal property not traditionally protected by law. This regime of intangible property protection is primarily an incentive for intellectual creativity.

In our jurisdiction, there are three mechanisms of protection provided by law for intellectual property. The first is patent where, for a limited time period, the inventor is granted exclusive rights in exchange for public disclosure after the lapse of such period. The second is trademark whose important feature is to provide distinction from other similar brands. This fosters healthy competition that engenders productivity and development of new technology. The third is copyright where the author of an original work is granted exclusive rights with regard to such original work. But unlike the other two, the protection afforded by copyright does not require the registration of such original work. For purposes of this blog, the focus would be on copyright.

Over the Christmas break, I was hooked in watching the US TV series The Big Bang Theory. In this particular show, the creator includes what they call a vanity card at the end at the end of the episodes. It is just a quick flash of a statement or a joke. In one episode, the vanity card after the credits read that in another country, a very similar show called The Theorists is on air. Upon research, I found out that the country is Belarus and the show has the same combination of characters and the script was almost a literal Russian translation of the US version. The show copycat show got canceled after a few episodes.

On the top of my head, I think that maybe because the show's being open to the public, contributed to the easier infringement of the show. But then again, wouldn't the public nature help in showcasing the originality of the first one produced and the aping of the other?

Then I remembered local shows. There was a time when Showtime was suspended for 20 days because of a comment Rosanna Roces made and the show Magpasikat took over its timeslot temporarily. The format of the two shows were very similar. Even the cast and crew were the same. An issue was then raised on whether or not the replacement show should be suspended as well since it somehow serves to circumvent the penalty meted.

Copyright was not an issue then because the shows were aired on the same network. But that got me thinking. How about Willing Willie and Wowowee? The show is practically the same. Had the MTRCB ruled that Magpasikat should also be suspended for being similar, could that doctrine be extended to Wowowee for copyright protection for its glaring similarities with Willing Willie? Perhaps I'll just standby until the P127M suit filed by ABS-CBN against Willing Willie is resolved.

- Evangelista, Emmanuel Benedict C. (Blog Entry No. 6)