Mark Burnett Punches Back at Producer of Spanish 'Contender'

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Mark Burnett Prods and DreamWorks Television have decided to put on their boxing gloves and step inside the courtroom to become competidores against a Hispanic production company they claim has ripped off a Spanish-language version of "The Contender."

According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Contender Partners (the joint company formed by Mark Burnett and DreamWorks) claims that they licensed two seasons of "The Contender" to Azteca International for dubbed broadcast. Later, Burnett's company pitched Azteca on a Spanish-language version of the boxing reality show to be shown on the Discovery Channel.

But the complaint alleges that "Azteca Defendants secretly contacted Discovery and proposed that the two networks co-produce a new Spanish-language version of "The Contender" called "Retador Azteca" that not only infringed the trademarked names for 'The Contender' but also copied the same theme, format, and concept of 'The Contender.'"

Discovery declined the offer for "Retador" (which means contender in Spanish), but Azteca began broadcasting episodes of its new program anyway on its own network.

The plaintiffs, represented by John Gatti at Greenburg Traurig in LA, are seeking an injunction and three times actual damages.