Jessica Seinfeld Law Suit
When Jessica Seinfeld's book came out, I definitely did not take her side in the battle of the cookbook and thought and still think she is an idiot, and that she was definitely influenced by the other cookbook. However much she was influenced though, I think she will probably win this lawsuit that was filed against her for copyright and trademark infringement.
I am always skeptical of any lawsuit that is accompanied by a press release. In this case, Missy Chase Lapine's attorneys had a PR company prepare a press release announcing the lawsuit and why it was filed. It was totally unnecessary and instead just makes the law firm look like a bunch of blowhards. Yes, you want attention and publicity if you are a law firm, but you are suing Jerry Seinfeld and his wife and everyone is familiar with the two books. You will get attention without having your lawsuit filed with a PR blast to media outlets.
The first thing we need to get out of the way is that they are just suing Jerry Seinfeld to say they are suing him and to make more noise. There is no way that Lapine will win for the comments Jerry made on Letterman. Here are the comments from the show.
They are just an opinion. Yes, he probably knew that the books were not published at the same time, but the rest is all opinion. Just like I called his wife an idiot, he can call Lapine a whacko. Now, instead of calling her a whacko, Jerry had said, Lapine had spent some time in mental hospitals, THEN she would have a case.
Plagiarism is a tough thing to prove. The closest anyone has got in awhile was the guy who sued Dan Brown. Lapine's lawyers list a number of examples where the books are identical or close to identical. To me they are mostly meaningless. The only ones I hold any stock in are the list of the food and the purees that go with them. That is the section that will either win or lose the case for Ms. Lapine.
I have linked over to The Smoking Gun beginning on the page of similarities that Lapine alleges. Take a look and decide for yourself. That is what a jury will do. There are about five pages to look through.
25 comments:
whether lapine wins or not... i am just happy that she has the chutzpah to sue the seinfelds!
i'm no lawyer, so enty i'm certain that you are right when you say that she has a tough road to hoe, BUT imo... in looking at the timeline of when lapine submitted her book and when jessica submitted hers, this was a case riddled with plagarism!
like jess REALLY cooks for her kids??? puh-leeez!
All I have to say is I love Jerry, he's one of the funniest men on the planet.
she won't win but she should..some of those recipes are almost word for word..the fact that its Jerry shouldn't play a part but it will.
If i were Ms. Lapine i'd be pissed too..she spent all the time researching the recipes in the first place. from the title to the cover art...very similar. maybe she herself did not come up with all those ideas but someone who saw Lapine's book orig did.
I'm a dork, but I like this cookbook for me. Consuming more veggies than ever now and feeling healthy. ;-)
I chose Jessica's copy as it was cheaper in the bookstore. End of story.
isn't there something about needing to change 3 ingredients or 3 instructions in order for it to be considered a "changed" recipe? I don't remember where I heard that.
I'm aware it's unlikely she'll win -- but anything that keeps the Seinfelds' appalling public comments on the radar is just fine by me. They've behaved badly.
dnfrommn i think thats true for all trademark or patent i think..not 100% sure in the US but here in Canada if you produce a similar product you do have to have three things diff to be declared a different product.
I think she has a case for plagiarism, as well as a case for defamation, though she is unlikely to win either. The defamation claim will come down to whether the judge hearing it feels Jerry's was an actual statement of opinion (I think it was bordering on assertion of fact, ie: she's a crazy celebrity stalker... comparing them to Dave's certifiable stalkers didn't help). But this is Jerry Seinfeld, who can argue he's a comedian, so of course it's an opinion/joke. I still think he meant every word of it and meant to defame her, but there you go.
So the Seinfelds will triumph b/c they are Seinfelds, and no matter what you think of them personally, that page on purees is particularly damning...
And re: exciting plagiarism cases. Don't forget The HP Lexicon vs. JK Rowling. I haven't LOL'ed that hard in AGES :D
AS IF Jessica Seinfeld didn't read Lapine's book and say to her self, "I can do that too".
Both books even suggest letting kids put sprinkles on their food?
Come on...
It is obvious that Jessica was influenced by the other book. If she wasn't Jerry's wife, any editor worth their salt would drop her manuscript into the recylcling box because it's too similar to a book already out on the market.
It'll be a sad day if this falls through :( I mean its soooo obvious, so if the Seinfelds win, I will be seriously (once again) disappointed with our court systems. The Seinfelds are awful people, from the "I Like 'Em Underage" Jerry to "I Dumped My Husband of Three Weeks the Minute I Could Ensnare Something Better" Jessica.
I don't know...she might have a case against Jerry. He was definitely on "the attack" even though it appeared to be just comedy schtick.
Slander is proven when the person is trying to damage someone's reputation...I think Jerry was trying to do that in a subtle and humorous way.
This will be settled out of court. She's gonna get some moola!!!!
I forgot to add:
He should have kept his mouth shut about the whole situation..I'm sure his attorney(s) advised him. His ego, however, got in the way.
spasuzy- i'm sure his atty advised BUT i would also imagine that his wife advised him as well... he doesnt share a pillow with his lawyer! i guess we can see who wears the apron and who wears the pants in the seinfeld household!
I read the docoment. I wouldn't be too pleased about being called a whacko/assasin. I think that she will win.
you know what got me? ok let me say its her money she can do what she wants with it BUT when she sent all those shoes to Oprah for helping getting her book a best seller..i wanted to scream "give it to charity" you stupid biotch. Oprah and the Seinfelds have enough dough that she need not send 22 effin pairs of shoes to her. rant over.
The page on ingredients, they are all the SAME EXACT ingredients. How did Jessica Seinfeld miraculously come up with the exact same ingredients. That's absurd. Its seems like she went through Lapines book and changed a word here and there to make it seem different.
amen jax! another example of oprah's "color of money" racism!!!
big "O" never has any trouble doing whatever it takes to promote her richie rich friends, YET anyone remember how she ripped "a million little pieces" author into a "trillion little pieces" when it was his publisher's decision to sell his book as autobiography instead of a novel???
bet oprah wont ask jessica seinfeld back on so that she can blast her for plagiarizing??? oprah's a money-racist! she only sees the color of her friend's money!
I think she has a good case against Jerry too. He totally slandered her reputation. Defamation is words that falsely and negatively reflect on a living person's reputation. Jerry definitely did that. And since she wasn't a public person, she doesn't even have to prove malice. And different jurisdictions have different laws on the opinion/fact distinction.
The ironic thing may be...
What if Mrs. S. didn't even compile the cookbook in the first place...she may have had a "ghost writer" or an assistant editor do the book and merely took the credit and added her name. Lots of famous people do that.
The ghost writer could have been under deadline pressure...and panicked...and did some googling or something...much like college students do with term papers!
I bet Jerry wish he stuck with Shoshanna now...or did Shoshanna dump him?
The O-factor is even affecting the election, so ya have to wonder what the Obama's are going to send Oprah.
Yeah and thats the other thing too: the defamation. I think she stands a fighting chance on that one: yes, he sought to "defame" her! He called her a whacko on TV and made a subtle reference to the possibility of her being a serial killer! He's a comedian, so he knows his words would come off as harmless....he's a rat! And I'm betting his LAWYER advised him not to speak about it, but his WIFE pressured him to stick up for her! Its ridiculous! I could see how the defamation wouldnt stick up if she were just some private citizen, but his public comments no doubt affected her PUBLIC image, because a PUBLIC image is what she has, as a writer...and to take her credibility away through slander, is to take from her income! And it was NO DOUBT deliberate!!
As someone on this site once pointed out, when you have a concept for a book and are pitching it to publishers, one of the things that is done, is a search is done to see if a similar book has been recently released or is being published, so you know what the competition is out there and if theres even a MARKET for the book! So theres NO WAY that they didnt notice this other woman's book, unless someone wasnt doing their job correctly.
something just struck me -- won't plaintiff's lawyers ask for a discovery motion to see documentation of Seinfeld's testing and development of all of "her" recipes? Shouldn't there be notes, photos/polaroids, e-mails, calculations?
It's so obvious that either Jessica or her ghost writer copied off of Lapine's recipes. Enough so that it was brought to her attention by many of her readers. (I haven't read either book, by the way). Plus I too would be so mad if Jerry Seinfeld started calling me a "wacko" on national tv to discredit me. That was so unnecessary. The ingredients that were copied from Lapine's book were so close to Seinfeld's! I hope the jury isn't starstruck and Lapine gets some justice!!!
Wow, I just read more of the lawsuit documents! It seems pretty clear that Lapine was a food/nutrition professional. If you click on the link provided by ENT, it takes you mid-way into the paperwork. Go to the bottom of the page and click on page 4 to go to a previous page. Lapine is a former publisher of Eating Well magazine and serves on a Culinary Arts Faculty in NYC. She also collaborates with groups in conjunction with a Children's hospital where her nutrition techniques are used with pediatric patients. She's been researching how to get kis to eat healthier since around 2002.
Don't know too much about this whole thing, but after looking at the Smoking Gun documents, it is very obvious that Jessica Seinfeld truly plagarized, and should be held legally/financially responsible for it. Honestly, if Jessica gets away with this, who is to say that other celebs won't just write books they have read before, sell a million of them because the are celebs, while someone else who did all the work suffers for it? It's ridiculous. I don't care how weak of a case this might be, it should be blaringly obvious to the judge and jury that Jessica ripped this woman off.
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