Time Warner Entertainment and HBO were sued for $56 million in damages in a case alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition relating to Six Feet Under, their phenomenally successful series about life and death in a family run funeral home. After we won dismissal of all pendent claims under the copyright preemption doctrine and all Lanham Act claims for failure to state a claim, we moved for summary judgment. Despite some similarities and testimony for plaintiff by an acclaimed Hollywood screenwriter, the judge agreed that any similarities were simply too abstract to be copyrightable, and granted our motion. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in a published opinion that stands as the most current articulation of the proper procedure for evaluating such claims in a television or motion picture context.