Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Stolen jokes

In the future, mail all the jokes you write to yourself, registered mail, and don't open the postmarked envelope till there's a legal situation. Also, register them with the US Copyright Office [copyright.gov], that way you can sue for more money if they get lifted.

If you can prove that these particular jokes were really stolen, that is you can prove somehow that you wrote and/or performed them before the TV show aired, you might have a good case. Ways of proving your case might include witness testimony, or videotapes of your performances with a fonted or timecoded date and time.

You could also write, or have an agent or attorney write, to the producers of the TV show -- maybe they would rather buy their material from the source.

Re: Stolen jokes

Mr. Stone has made some very good suggestions. I recommend that my clients send their work to me and we add it to their website, which we've copyrighted and keep records for. Our CA member attorney can go over your case with you, if you wish.

Re: Stolen jokes

My esteemed colleague and classmate Michael Stone is correct that you should copyright your works. (Periodically, submit folios of jokes, rather than individually... to save money).

As for the old "mail it to yourself" adage... I want to debunk the myth that this is worth the trouble.

Since it IS possible to mail an un-sealed envelope through the U.S. Postal service, the notion that a sealed envelope containing the work is meaningful in establishing a timeline is simply false.

Defense counsel merely introduces an un-sealed envelope bearing a postal seal and cancelation mark into evidence, and the date-stamp is useless.

Re: Stolen jokes

Yes. Mailing anything to yourself is a myth and has extremely little to no legal weight in court. The only available way to file a copyright lawsuit and to avail yourself to the federal courts is by having a federally registered copyright with the United States Copyright Office.

With that said however, the landscape for copyrights and/or protection of jokes is a murky one. Simple one-liners and the like are difficult to protect via copyright. If you are using a slogan that identifies you, like the Get er done guy, that may be protected via trademark.