The High Court has ruled against a man who had claimed that RTE and journalist Fiona Looney stole the idea for a television show, Celebrity Bainsteoir. Patrick Kinsella claimed that he presented RTE with an idea for a show called Top Coach or Top Team in August 2007. His idea was rejected at the time by both RTE and TV3. Mr Kinsella later discovered that the Celebrity Bainsteoir show was broadcast on RTE in November 2007. RTE contended that they informed Mr Kinsella at a meeting in August 2007 that Celebrity Bainsteoir was about to go out on air. RTE said that it was first approached about the show in 2004 by Ms Looney and then finally took up the show in 2006.
Section 17 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 provides that copyright subsists in original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. However, this section also provides that an idea underpinning such a work does not enjoy copyright protection. An idea must be expressed in some tangible form in order to be protected.
As copyright law cannot protect ideas, an applicant such as Mr Kinsella may have recourse under the law of confidence. Mr Kinsella had argued that he submitted his idea to RTE which they then used to gain a commercial advantage. The case of House of Spring Gardens v Point Blank Ltd. provides the authoritative Irish judicial statement on the duty of confidence. In that case, Costello J outlined that the Court, in such situations, must firstly determine:
- Whether there exists from the relationship between the parties, an obligation of confidence regarding the information
- Whether the information can properly be regarded as confidential information.
Costello J held that once an obligation exists and the information is confidential, then the person to whom it was given has a duty to act in good faith and not to use the information to the detriment of the informant. Mr Kinsella claimed that RTE breached this duty to act in good faith and used his idea as a 'springboard' to gain a commercial advantage.
RTE successfully defended the case by proving that Celebrity Bainsteoir was already in production in 2007 and therefore that the idea underpinning the show did not originate from the information given to them by Mr Kinsella.
In ruling against Mr Kinsella, Mr. Justice Birmingham said that he was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that Ms Looney was the originator of the idea for the television series three years prior to Mr Kinsella's approach to RTE. The costs of the 7 day action were awarded against the Plaintiff who, according to media reports, has indicated his intention to appeal the result.
This briefing is correct as at 2 June 2011.
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