Cleveland Cavliers star LeBron James found himself embroiled in another lawsuit regarding the production of "The Shop," the series of sports conversations in a barbershop. Adventure Enterprises is alleging that James' multimedia company, UNINTERRUPTED, stole the idea for the premise of the show.
Adventure Enterprises claims that they held multiple meetings over a two year period, only for James' camp to cut them out at the last minute.
Their idea was for a barbershop-themed talk show where celebrities discussed their business successes. The goal is an injunction that aims to halt production of the show and to award serious monetary compensation to Adventure Enterprises.
The two episodes that have aired so far are similar, though not identical to that premise. Those involved with the show claim Adventure Enterprises has no merit to their claim and that their lawsuit is nothing more than a publicity stunt. A third episode has already filmed, though it has not aired yet.
Another lawsuit
This recent suit filing follows UNINTERRUPTED filing their own lawsuit against the University of Alabama.
As part of the school's football program, they recently started a program called "Shop Talk," where head coach Nick Saban discusses sports with various players.
The cease and desist accused Alabama of stealing the show idea from them. Though Alabama elected not to halt production on the show, they did change the name to "Bama Cuts" to avoid confusion. The claim here stemmed more from the name of the show than the actual content. It's hard to believe that James would have won in court if he were required to prove just how Alabama stole the idea for a talk show about sports topics.
Tough week for LeBron
Although his camp claims that the lawsuit from Adventure Enterprises is baseless, there is room for this headache to grow.
If Adventure Enterprises truly feels that they had their intellectual property stolen, they likely have some records and proof to validate these claims. When they tried to shut down Alabama's "Shop Talk" the only similarity was the names of the shows. A quick name change from Alabama shut that suit right down.
Adventure Enterprises has the ability to destroy LeBron's show before it can get off the ground. Even if it doesn't go to a contentious court battle, there is a real possibility that the negative publicity from the show's short life will be enough for LeBron and company to abandon the show altogether.