Pryor Cashman Defeats Copyright Infringement Claims Brought Against Tyler Perry Studios
Pryor Cashman has defeated a claim brought against Tyler Perry Studios and Lions Gate Films by an author who claimed the motion picture "Good Deeds," which starred Tyler Perry and Thandie Newton, infringed the copyright in her book. The case, Terri V. Donald v. The Tyler Perry Company et al., was pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Plaintiff Terri Donald alleged that the Tyler Perry film infringed her book entitled Bad Apples Can Be Good Fruit, which concerns a romantic relationship between an African-American woman who has risen above a tortured past and a wealthy and a successful African-American businessman. "Good Deeds" featured Perry as Wesley Deeds, the CEO of his late father’s computer software company, a man who is not happy with a seemingly perfect life, because it's a life designed to meet his family’s expectations, rather than the one he dreams of, until he meets and befriends a down-on-her-luck young mother (Thandie Newton) and her daughter. Donald claimed that the film copied the characters, plot and theme of her book, as well as numerous scenes.
Pryor Cashman moved for judgment on the pleadings on behalf of both Tyler Perry Studios and Lions Gate Films, arguing that the only similarities between the parties’ works, if any, were far too abstract to be the basis for a viable claim of copyright infringement.
On August 21, 2013, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III granted Pryor Cashman’s motion, noting that the only similarity between the works was that both concerned a romance between a wealthy man and a woman who has experienced hardship, which was not sufficient to sustain a copyright infringement claim.
Partner Tom Ferber, member of Pryor Cashman’s Litigation, Intellectua Property and Media & Entertainment Groups, successfully represented the defendants and argued the case.
To read a copy of the Court's decision, please click here.
The case has been reported by numerous news outlets. To read a sample of the press coverage, please click here.
