Ninth Circuit Rules In Ghost Hunters Idea Submission Case

This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.

Pitch meetings are the red blood cells of the entertainment world, transmitting the ideas and concepts that help to build films, TV shows, plays and other creative work. But pitch meetings can also become the petri dishes where legal disputes grow. And how writers, agents, producers and studios handle scripts and treatments – and the ideas behind them — has been at the core of a long line of so-called idea submission lawsuits.  A recent Ninth Circuit decision seems certain to join the pantheon of notable idea submission cases.

The dispute in Montz v. Pilgrim Films & Television focused on the Sci-Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters, which is about contact between people and spirits in the afterlife. Plaintiff Larry Montz, a parapsychologist, alleged he thought of the idea for a show "that would follow a team of paranormal investigators conducting field investigations" where they would