Stranger Things quickly became one of Netflix’s most popular series when it began in 2016. It features several famous actors and actresses well known in Hollywood, which is the oldest film industry in the world, like Winona Ryder and David Harbour. Unfortunately, there was recently a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the show’s creators.
Charles Kessler filed the lawsuit against Matt and Ross Duffer in April, claiming that he pitched the idea to the Duffers at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and the brothers then took his idea to turn it into their own show. Kessler accused the Duffers of repurposing his original idea.
Kessler was the director and co-writer of a short film called “Montauk”, which premiered in 2012. And Stranger Things was allegedly originally called “Montauk” during pre-production. Kessler built his case saying that his short film and the show share many similarities, including focusing on a small town and the government’s involvement in the supernatural happenings.
However, according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), the Duffer brothers had been working on Stranger Things since 2010, long before they spoke with Kessler in 2014.
THR explains that a “Nov. 19, 2010, email, for example, outlines a project set in the 1980s featuring a secret underground research facility, unethical experiments, a monster coming through a portal and other elements of what would become “Stranger Things… another email mentions a protagonist who was abducted with other psychically gifted children and experimented on to develop those abilities and ends up able to control minds and move objects telepathically.”
There are laws in place to protect the ideas of businesses and people, like the 2016 Defend Trade Secrets Act, but Kessler has since dropped the lawsuit against the Stranger Things creators.
Kessler stated, “After hearing the deposition testimony this week of the legal expert I hired, it is now apparent to me that, whatever I may have believed in the past, my work had nothing to do with the creation of ‘Stranger Things. Documents from 2010 and 2013 prove that the Duffers independently created their show. As a result, I have withdrawn my claim and I will be making no further comment on this matter.”
The withdrawal of the lawsuit came after a judge had rejected the request for a summary judgment by the Duffers’, after the defendants said that the case going to trial would potentially reveal information, including financial data and plot details for future seasons, doing damage to both the show and Netflix.
And now that the lawsuit has been dropped, Netflix and the Duffers can continue creating great content on Stranger Things, especially with the third season dropping this July.
