(EXCLUSIVE) Mona Scott Young – Victory in Legal Battle Accusing Her of Stealing Idea For “Love & Hip Hop”

Mona Scott-Young

Mona Scott Young – Victory in Legal Battle

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, Mona Scott-Young scored a huge victory in the legal battle accusing her of stealing the idea for “Love & Hip Hop” from two female producers. A federal court judge sided with the reality show mogul and threw out the entire lawsuit after years of battling it out in court between the parties.

Here’s the latest: On November 22nd, the judge came back with his decision after years of the parties battling it out in court and sided with Mona Scott-Young by dismissing the entire case.

The order explains the idea for Hip Hop Wives is largely comprised of unprotectable elements and is similar to many shows on television. The judge notes that when the women were pitching their show, there were already many Real Housewives franchises on the air.

He says,

a number of series utilized the structures and narrative devices described in the Treatment of depicting a small cast of women in relationships with prominent men as they endure the highs and lows of their relationships, friends, and lives generally. Admittedly, the Real Housewives series expressly focuses on women bound by a specific geography while HHW intends to focus on women bound by a specific industry. But the prior art also contains numerous examples of shows focused on the lives of hip hop stars and their families. Shows such as Run’s House (2005), The Salt-N-Pepa Show (2007), Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood (2007) and Gotti’s Way (2007) all depict the lives of famous hip hop and R&B artists.

He disagrees with the producer’s argument that their idea was original saying that it’s not and claims no jury could ever find Mona Scott-Young and VH1 stole their idea for Love & Hip Hop. As a result, the entire case was thrown out and the producers were awarded nothing from their complaint.

Here’s the backstory: Mona Scott-Young — along with VH1 and New Pop Culture Productions – were sued by producers Trisha Lum and Nickie Lum-Davis, who accused them of stealing their show idea for Love & Hip Hop.

The women explained they pitched the idea for a show titled “Hip Hop Wives” back in 2009. They said they had a deal with VH1 with the show starring the current and former partners of DMX, Swizz Beatz, Irv Gotti & Jim Jones.

However, the deal fell apart eventually due to VH1 telling them they didn’t want a show to compete with their hit “Basketball Wives“.

The producers accused them of using “Hip Hop Wives” as a template for “Love and Hip Hop”. They filed suit against Mona Scott-Young’s company and the network for damages and an injunction against them from continuing to air “Love & Hip Hop”.

Scott-Young and the network responded to the suit, admitting that the female producers did meet with associates of the network back in 2009 and they were close to working out a deal but they then decided not to move forward with the show.

Scott-Young and the network deny the allegations that Love & Hip Hop is a rip off of “Hip Hop Wives”, explaining that they independently came up with the idea for their hit reality show. They demanded the lawsuit be dismissed and the producers be awarded nothing.

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