Conan O'Brien is the target of a civil lawsuit brought by a
man who says the comedian stole his jokes.
Robert Kasberg claims that he posted jokes on his personal blog
and through Twitter that then made their way into Conan's
monolog in a nearly verbatim fashion.
One of the jokes:
"A Delta flight this week took off from Cleveland to New
York with just two passengers. And they fought over control of the
armrest the entire flight."
This one appeared in Conan's show the same day that Kasberg
posted it.
Do intellectual property rights exist in jokes? My first
though is – are they "good" enough to warrant
copyright protection under the minimal creativity standard
established by the Supreme Court in the Feist case?
A single line such as, "Keep Connecticut Weird"
generally falls short of copyright protection. Other phrases,
those that truly approach "literary", can be
protected.
