I.Protect: It’s a date

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Clint Fabiosa & Ana Liza Villamor

IS THE format of a TV show copyright-protected? In the case of Joaquin vs. Drilon, G.R. No. 108946, Jan. 28, 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in the negative. In the said case, BJPI was a copyright holder for the format and style of presentation of a dating show entitled “Rhoda and Me.” BJPI sued the producers of the show “It’s A Date” claiming that the latter show infringed on the copyright over “Rhoda and Me.”

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The High Court ruled that the format of a show is not copyrightable. Copyright does not extend to the general concept or format of BJPI’s dating game show. Copyright covers finished artistic or literary works and not to concepts. Copyright does not extend to an idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. To determine whether there is infringement, the master videotapes for both shows must be compared. Mere description by words of the general format of the two dating game shows is insufficient.

(clint.fabiosa@iprotect.ph / analiza.villamor@iprotect.ph)