Big Legal Issues Surrounding “The Little Couple”

Source: tvguide.com

The circumstances surrounding this lawsuit, LMNO Cable Group, Inc. v. Discovery Communications LLC, Case No. 2:16-cv-4543 (behind paywall), in the Central District of California, could be a television show in its own right.

LMNO, a producer of a number of reality television shows (most importantly for this case “The Little Couple”), allegedly found itself the victim of embezzlement by its accountant, who then later, according to the complaint, threatened to destroy LMNO’s professional relationships unless LMNO kept quiet about the alleged embezzler and gave him $800,000. LMNO apparently refused to comply with this request, instead reporting the alleged embezzler to the authorities.

In the meantime, however, the accountant had evidently been in contact with Discovery Communications, whose station broadcasts “The Little Couple.” LMNO alleges in this lawsuit that Discovery used the accountant’s help to try to drive LMNO out of business by stealing “The Little Couple” from LMNO.

The alleged stealing of “The Little Couple” involved the alleged breach of a number of contracts between LMNO and Discovery about “The Little Couple.” As usual with entertainment contracts, they’re complicated, consisting of many amendments, and there’s an implied contract angle as well. And, predictably, there are copyright and trademark implications, too.

According to the complaint, Discovery directly employs the actors in “The Little Couple,” but the contract has a clause preventing Discovery from using these actors to produce shows without LMNO. Allegedly, that is exactly what Discovery is now attempting to do. Specifically, Discovery and LMNO had discussed making a special episode of “The Little Couple” set in Scotland and England. LMNO alleges that Discovery went ahead and filmed the episode without LMNO’s involvement, in violation of an additional implied contract between them with regard to that particular episode. In addition, LMNO is alleging that Discovery’s actions have breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and interfered with LMNO’s abilities to obtain all of its benefits under the contracts.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. If you’d like to read more about the case, I found articles here and here.