## Facts

- A Puerto Rico production team developed the sitcom *20 Pisos de Historia* (“20 Pisos”), set in a condominium and featuring recurring characters created and embodied in written scripts for early episodes.
- Entertainer Emmanuel “Sunshine” Logroño participated in development meetings, performed a central character, and claimed he made creative contributions through suggestions and revisions.
- The *20 Pisos* scripts for initial episodes were written by identified writers within the production venture; the show aired successfully on WKAQ.
- Logroño later left for a rival network and starred in *El Condominio*, a sitcom that used the same condominium setting and substantially the same core character lineup, with new stories and some additional minor characters.
- TMTV, as successor to the original production company, claimed ownership of the protectable expression in *20 Pisos* (including scripts and the fixed depiction of characters) and sued Mass Productions and Logroño for copyright infringement.
- The district court granted summary judgment for TMTV on ownership and infringement; a jury awarded damages, which the court reduced by amounts obtained from a separate settlement with the network that aired *El Condominio*.

## Issues

1. Whether Logroño held any copyright interest in alleged creative contributions, given the fixation requirement and the claimed work-for-hire status of the scripts and related expressive elements.
2. Whether *El Condominio* copied protectable expression from *20 Pisos* (as opposed to unprotectable ideas, scènes à faire, or stock elements), satisfying substantial similarity.
3. Whether a settlement with the broadcasting network released Logroño and Mass Productions, and whether the damages award had to be offset to prevent double recovery.

## Decision

- The First Circuit affirmed judgment for TMTV on liability and damages.
- The court held TMTV owned the relevant copyrights; Logroño’s asserted ideas or contributions did not create a separate protectable interest absent independent fixation, and the show materials at issue were treated as owned by the production entity as works made for hire.
- The court held *El Condominio* was strikingly similar to *20 Pisos* in protectable expressive elements (including the fixed configuration of setting and recurring characters), supporting infringement.
- The court held the settlement with the network did not release Logroño or Mass Productions, but the district court properly offset the damages award by the settlement amount.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright protects original expression fixed in a tangible medium; oral suggestions or unfixed concepts do not, by themselves, confer authorship rights under 17 U.S.C. § 102(a).
- In assessing substantial similarity, courts compare protectable expressive elements, not general premises, unoriginal material, or ideas.
- Reuse of a television series’ fixed setting-and-character ensemble can constitute infringement even where episode plots differ, if the later work appropriates protectable expression.
- A settlement with one liable party does not release non-settling defendants absent clear release language, but any award must be reduced to account for settlement proceeds to avoid double recovery.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit upheld summary judgment and damages for TMTV, ruling that the defendants infringed protectable, fixed expression from *20 Pisos*, that the actor’s claimed contributions did not establish ownership without independent fixation, and that a prior settlement reduced damages by offset without releasing non-settling infringers.


TMTV Corp. v. Mass Prods., Inc., 645 F.3d 464 (1st Cir. 2011)