Successfully resolved a copyright infringement and unfair competition dispute related to a television show format

Lee & Ko’s IP Practice Group successfully resolved the legal dispute on behalf of Broadcasting Company M, in a lawsuit brought by a competitor, Broadcasting Company J, that claimed copyright infringement and violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act ( “UCPA”). The issue in this case was whether the client copied the television show format of the competitor.

The two broadcasting companies had television audition programs for trot, a genre of Korean pop music, which enjoyed sensational popularity in Korea. Around January 2021, Company J filed a lawsuit against Company M seeking damages compensation as well as an injunction on the airing of Company M’s television show on the ground that Company M copied the format of Company J’s television show. Company J argued that such alleged copying constituted copyright infringement and unauthorized use of another’s achievements prohibited under the UCPA.

The central issue in the lawsuit became whether copyright infringement and unfair competition can be recognized with respect to a television show format. As Company M’s legal counsel, Lee & Ko carefully analyzed the legal principles on the format rights as recognized under the Copyright Act, and building on this analysis, persuasively showed that the elements underlying Company J’s claims  should not be seen as creative on their own and therefore were not eligible for copyright protection. Through its analysis of extensive materials regarding audition programs in South Korea and around the world,  Lee & Ko presented compelling evidence and ultimately established that the claimed elements had, in fact, been universally used in audition programs in the past, and that the two audition programs were not similar in terms of the overall construction and specific expressions, thus forcefully proving that Company M did not commit copyright infringement or an act of unfair competition. 

Subsequently, following fierce exchanges of legal arguments at oral hearings, Company J withdrew the case about 2 years after filing the lawsuit, which led to a successful resolution of the dispute. As this was a case specifically addressing intellectual property issues in the context of television show format rights, it is expected to carry a high precedential value. Lee & Ko’s meticulous analysis of the elements of the two television shows at issue, coupled with its extensive efforts to gather relevant evidence on both domestic and foreign copyright and unfair competition laws, resulted in this successful outcome.