Dismissal of American Idol Claim Upheld 3/22/05

A man claiming his idea for the hit show American Idol was stolen by a TV network has lost his case, after an appeals court upheld dismissal of the charges.

In 2003, a federal judge dismissed Harry Keane Jr.'s claim without hearing it and ordered him to pay Fox Television Stations, Inc. legal fees of nearly $130,000.

Keane's attorneys had argued before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that Keane deserved a trial, but on Thursday (17MAR05) the court disagreed.

Keane said he came up with the show in 1994, and that he sent material to Fox outlining his concept in 1998. American Idol first aired in 2002.

The appeals court wrote, "Because Keane sent out unsolicited letters, which detailed the specifics of his idea, to several different production companies and advertised his idea on the internet, the district court correctly found that he cannot demonstrate that he had a trade secret."

TV contest American Idol was spawned from British show Pop Idol.