Jerry Seinfeld Responds to 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' Lawsuit

The comedian says the show's idea is so generic that claiming ownership of it is impossible

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Apr 5, 2018

Jerry Seinfeld has responded to a lawsuit alleging he stole the idea for his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee TV series, saying the suit is bogus and should be dismissed.

In Seinfeld's court documents, the comedian lays out various reasons why the lawsuit filed against him by Christian Charles — the man who claims Seinfeld stole his idea for the Netlfix show — should be thrown out, TMZ reports.

Among them, Seinfeld states Charles missed his chance to sue over a copyright claim, saying the statute of limitations demands for copyright claims is three years. However, the first episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee aired in 2012, and now we're obviously all the way into 2018.

Furthermore, Seinfeld claims the idea for the series is so generic that ownership of it is impossible, pointing to similar series like Carpool Karaoke, Jay Leno's Garage and even Cougars in Cars Getting Cosmos.

Lastly, Seinfeld states he filed a copyright for his pilot episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but then Charles suspiciously filed his own copyright 10 days later for a similarly titled Comedians in Cars Going for Coffee.

All this being said, Seinfeld did admit that Charles directed the pilot episode of the series back in 2011, though denies stealing any sort of concept or idea.

As previously reported, Charles claimed in his lawsuit that he pitched the idea for the show to Seinfeld way back in 2002, only to have the comedian turn him down at the time. But when they eventually got back together to do the pilot for the show in 2011, Seinfeld ultimately booted Charles from the project when he wanted a co-creator credit.
 

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