The 'Billions' Lawsuit Gets Defeated By Showtime

There was a shakeup of sorts when it was confirmed that the show, Billions is subject to a lawsuit by a performance coach who claimed that one of the characters is apparently based on her story.

But everyone can rest easy now, as a New York federal judge has been convinced to cancel the lawsuit from the coach who claimed Billions was copied from her story. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Denise Shull, the performance coach sued the network Showtime claiming Maggie Siff's character Wendy Rhoades is based on her book Market Mind Games and that series co-creator Andrew Ross Sorkin asked her to help develop the character and she was never compensated. Showtime asked U.S. District Judge George Daniels to toss the complaint, arguing, among other things that the works and the women are nothing alike. 

Daniels on Friday sided with the network — finding that the nature of the works (an academic book that uses fiction to ease reader comprehension and a series about the "age-old trifecta of money, power, and sex) and Shull/Rhoades aren't substantially similar. 

"[T]his Court cannot identify any copying," writes Daniels, who goes on to explain that in-house performance coaches like the fictional Rhoades aren't rare on Wall Street.  

"Although Shull is well known in the performance coaching world, it cannot be said that she can copyright the idea of a female in-house performance coach," writes Daniels, explaining that a finding of copyright infringement would essentially grant Shull a monopoly on the concept and would be even more troubling because "the characters of Denise and Wendy do not resemble one another in the slightest."