Paramount is out of the Danger Zone, at least legally.
According to an “opinion and order” document filed Jan. 9 by U.S. District Court Judge Jed. Rakoff in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, the suit that was filed by Shaun Gray, the cousin of “Top Gun: Maverick” writer Eric Warren Singer, “must be dismissed for several reasons, including lack of protectable copyright in an infringing derivative work.”
Additionally, the judge allowed for Paramount’s countersuit against Gray (who the document refers to as director Joseph Kosinksi’s “long-time writing partner”) to go to trial, serving for a tangled legal battle that began last spring to continue.
The judge referenced a case against Warner Bros., where a writer claimed that a story involving Batman and the Riddler had infringed on a story that he had written. But since he derived his story from characters based in a preexisting and legally sound universe, the case was thrown out.
The same thing applies to Gray’s claims against Paramount regarding “Top Gun: Maverick.”
“Gray is a writer who indisputably based his entire script on existing material, including ‘Top Gun’ characters, settings and plot devices. The work represents Gray’s re-capturing of the ‘Top Gun’ universe in ways that entirely pervade his scenes. Gray’s copyright is therefore invalid,” the document reads.
Gray had asked the court to dismiss Paramount’s countersuit, but that suit will go forward.
“In the court’s decision denying Gray’s motion to dismiss, it held that Paramount’s allegations supported a claim that Gray had superior knowledge because he admitted to concealing his contributions to the Singer draft from Paramount,” the document reads.
It continued: “There is also sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that Paramount reasonably relied on Gray’s alleged fraud. Because of Gray’s silence, Paramount, among other things, never had the opportunity to have Gray sign any kind of employment agreement. Moreover, questions of whether a party reasonably relied on fraud are typically questions ‘reserved for the finder of fact and not usually amenable to summary judgment.’”
At the end of the document, it states that, “The Court grants Paramount’s motion for summary judgment and denies Gray’s motion for summary judgment. Specifically, Gray’s claim for copyright infringement is dismissed and Paramount’s counterclaims of copyright infringement and fraud are preserved for trial.”
This is the second lawsuit against Paramount and “Top Gun” that they have won this week. Earlier in the week, a judge ruled in favor of Paramount in a copyright and contract dispute brought about the studio by heirs of the author of a 1983 magazine that inspired the first film. Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay, the window and son of Ehud Yonay, who wrote the article “Top Guns,” were shot down first in 2024 and the appeals circuit affirmed the court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Paramount.
