As almost any creative person will tell you, “They stole my idea!” is part occupational hazard and part inside joke. Why? Because it is incredibly easy to have an idea or a concept for something, and the more ideas you come up with, the more likely it is that you will cross into similar territory with an idea or concept that has already been developed. 

This is why an idea cannot receive copyright protection until it has been placed in a tangible form that has a sufficient amount of creativity.  An idea is too easy to duplicate. What does become protected under copyright law is the specific and unique execution of that idea.

That idea (no joke intended) is at the heart of the reason a U.S. District Judge just dismissed author William Collier’s lawsuit against director Adam McKay who directed the movie Don’t Look Up.

“A List of 15 Random Similarities”

In her written decision, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett did not hold back on Collier, saying he was claiming infringement for “generic and unprotectable ideas.” 

Some of the similarities he listed included how both works examined media, government, and society, and how they shared a darkly comedic tone – all of which, Garnett argued, were “far too general to merit copyright protection.” 

Despite this, the door was not completely closed for Collier. He was given 21 days from the date of her ruling to file an amended complaint detailing how McKay’s movie is “substantially similar” to his self-published novel.

The lesson here? It is creative execution that matters where copyright is concerned – both in terms of deciding whether or not one work infringes upon another and when drafting the  infringement claim. If you cannot cite specific and substantial similarities between your work and the one you are filing against, your chances of winning the claim are slim.