Comedian Harry Deansway has lost his case against Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow over a sitcom he claimed infringed his copyright.
A judge in London’s High Court has ruled that Baby Cow series “Live at the Moth Club,” which ran for one season on UKTV in 2022, wasn’t a copy of Deansway’s 2013 YouTube series “Shambles.”
A two-day civil trial was held in November 2024, with comedians including “The Windsors” star Ellie White and “Jurassic World Dominion” duo Alexander Owen and Ben Ashenden, who contributed to “Live at the Moth Club,” testifying on behalf of Baby Cow. The trio said any coincidences between the two shows, which both blended stand-up sets with sitcom tropes, were a coincidence.
High Court Recorder Amanda Michaels ultimately agreed with that assessment.
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Deansway, who brought the case under his legal name Joshua Rinkoff, had alleged Baby Cow’s head of comedy Rupert Majendie, with whom he had had both a social and professional relationship over the course of their comedy careers, had copied the show. Majendie and Baby Cow strongly disputed the claim.
Coogan was not named in the suit and there is no suggestion he was involved in “Live at the Moth Club.”
In her judgment, Michaels said: “I find that the format of Mr Rinkoff’s series was not protected as a copyright work. Had I found there to be any such copyright, I would in any event have found that it was not infringed by the Defendant [Baby Cow].”
Coogan co-founded Baby Cow alongside producer Henry Normal in 1998 before selling a majority stake to BBC Studios. He has stayed on as a minority shareholder and creative director, with Baby Cow CEO Sarah Monteith running day to day operations.
A spokesperson for Baby Cow told Variety: “We’re pleased that the court has ruled that ‘Live At The Moth Club’ is a wholly original work that had creative input from a number of people who had never previously heard of ‘Shambles’ or its creator. The claim was defended on that basis and the judge has found conclusively in Baby Cow’s favor on all issues.”
Variety has reached out to Rinkoff.