A&E filed a copyright infringement lawsuit with the producers of On Patrol: Live last August. A&E claims the series is near identical to its own series Live PD, which was the highest ranked program until its concluding season in 2020.
In addition to being a near carbon copy of Live PD, On Patrol: Live almost copies the name as well, originally titled PD Live until A&E issued a cease and desist letter before the series premiered. Both series feature commentary from the hosts alongside live footage obtained by police and other law enforcement agents.
Big Fish Entertainment, Half Moon Pictures, and ReelzChannel are listed as the defendants in this lawsuit and had filed a motion to dismiss the case to no avail.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla is allowing the lawsuit to proceed stating that although the genre of the show isn’t a copyrightable offense, the extent to which On Patrol: Live mirrors its predicessor is crossing a legal line.
“The particular selection and arrangement of the elements as a whole – namely, the mix of live police footage and in-studio commentary, the black screen displaying a message regarding a suspect’s innocence in white text each time the show begins or returns from a break, the red and blue lights to mirror police cars, the use of hosts Dan Ahrams and Sgt. [Sean] Larkin, sitting around virtual identical tables with virtually identical mugs, the sequencing of the ‘Missing’ and ‘Crime of the Week’ segments and the guest on the ‘Missing’ segment, the positioning of the hosts, the specific and consistent camera angles used, and the following of specific police departments across weeks – considered together are sufficiently creative to state a a cognizable copyright claim.”
Big Fish Entertainment, Half Moon Pictures, and ReelzChannel have until July 7th to respond to the lawsuit, while A&E has been given the greenlight to gather evidence of the full extent of the copyright infrngement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition between the two series.