Call in more lawyer clones to deal with this one. The production company and creators of Orphan Black were unable to dismiss a lawsuit alleging they copied an author’s screenplay to form the basis of the hit show.

Orphan Black airs in the United States on the BBC America channel and is originally a Canadian science fiction show about a woman that discovers she is a clone and two more seasons of chaos and intrigue have followed. Last year, the production team behind the show was hit with a lawsuit claiming that Orphan Black is, well, a clone of someone else’s screenplay.

Plaintiff, Stephen Hendricks, claims that in 2000 he registered a copyright for the screenplay Double Double and in 2004 sent a summary of the work to the production companies behind Orphan Black. The script was rejected but several years later, Hendricks claims, elements of his work made it into the Orphan Black series. The plaintiff claims that both shows revolve around a female protagonist that discovers that she has sister clones that are being killed off by a clone assassin. The plaintiff then proceeds to describe over 5 pages of similarities between the two works. The plaintiff seeks in excess of $5 million and wants to be credited as a creator and executive producer of the Orphan Black series.

On Monday, the District Court issued a decision denying the appearing defendants’ (Temple Street Productions and executive producer, David Fortier) attempt to dismiss the case. Defendants argued that the case should be dismissed because the court did not have adequate jurisdiction over them because they are a Canadian company and a Canadian citizen. The court held that Temple Street was subject to the court’s general jurisdiction because it is doing business in California since it has an affiliated office in Los Angeles. As to Fortier, the court held that while there is no general jurisdiction over the Canadian citizen there is specific jurisdiction because the copyright claim arises out of defendant’s contacts with California even if those contacts are isolated and sporadic. Meaning the accused bad behavior and subsequent business in California, promoting Orphan Black and meeting with agents, enabled Fortier to be sued in California. So the case goes on.

Claims of copyright infringement like this are fairly typical when a television show becomes a hit; most of them are not successful. The idea of having clones on the run from an assassin is not protectable as it is an idea. Plaintiff must show that the expression of the idea, the TV series, is substantially similar to the Double Double screenplay. Ultimately, because at this point Hendricks was able to avoid having the case dismissed, the court or jury will decide if Orphan Black is actually a clone.

