If ya remember a couple years back, a documentary team was suing MasterCard for ripping off their drive-to-a-bunch-of-baseball-parks-over-the-summer idea.
as Clayton reported in 2001. Well, the jury is back and the verdict is in - Startribune (reg. req.) reads:
"U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen found that MasterCard did not violate copyright laws with the campaign that its advertising agency, McCann-Erickson USA, created in 2001."
David Hoch and Joe Marble, lifelong Twins fans who made a similar trek in 1998, sued MasterCard and McCann-Erickson for copyright infringement after the "trip" ads ran on television. In the MasterCard spots, two younger men are on a quest to drive to every major league baseball stadium during a summer - in a similar coloured Volkswagen bus, decorated with stickers of cities they had visited, just like in the Twins fans film.
Related news It's a dog's life for Taco Bell at the Guardian;
"Two men have secured a $40m award from Taco Bell for allegedly stealing their idea to use a Chihuahua as a marketing mascot, a legal judgement that goes to the heart of the issue of the ownership of ideas in advertising."