Tyler Perry’s latest comedy project has landed him in legal trouble. The acclaimed filmmaker, alongside Netflix and actress Terri J. Vaughn, is being sued over allegations that their new series She The People infringes on a trademark and draws heavily from a concept belonging to a Mississippi-based nonprofit.
As reported by The Clarion Ledger, Aimee Allison, the founder of the political advocacy group She The People, filed the suit, naming Perry’s production house, Tyler Vision, Vaughn, and 25 unnamed individuals as defendants.
The complaint, lodged just before the show’s official release, claims that the series borrows content and themes from an unfinished documentary Allison had in development back in 2020.
According to Allison, she contracted Nina Holiday Entertainment Inc. to produce a documentary centred on her organisation. She says she was in communication with Terri J. Vaughn at the time, under the impression that Vaughn was representing the production company.
She alleges that during this period, she and Vaughn exchanged ideas, discussed interviewees, and outlined potential themes for a documentary series that would carry the She The People name. Allison maintains that all creative materials and intellectual property from those discussions were to remain under the nonprofit’s control.
The lawsuit further claims that Perry’s company, Tyler Vision, made an unsuccessful attempt to register its own She The People trademark in September. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reportedly rejected the application in April. Allison is now seeking a jury trial to resolve the dispute.
“The Series echoes many of the same themes regarding Black women’s experiences in politics that Ms. Allison addresses through her activism under the SHE THE PEOPLE mark, albeit in a slightly different format,” the complaint states, according to Black Enterprise.
She The People debuted its first eight episodes last month on Netflix, with a second batch of episodes scheduled for release this August. In addition to Vaughn, the cast includes Jo Marie Payton, Jade Novah, Drew Olivia Tillman, Tré Boyd, and Dyon Brooks.
“Lieutenant Governor candidate Antoinette Dunkerson runs a successful campaign and now must figure out how to thrive under a sexist and condescending governor while attempting to keep her family in line now that they’re all in the public eye.”
As the legal battle unfolds, all eyes are on how the court and the public will respond to the claim that what was once intended as a political documentary has now been reimagined as a fictional sitcom, possibly without proper credit or consent.
