It would be great if the BBC could produce a show with Selasi as the stand in for Paul Hollywood with Mary as the other judge and Mel and Sue as the presenters they would have to call the competition something else other then Bake off, and the rights are with Love Productions for that. But instead of having a plain same old cookery show with professional chefs like all the other shows presently (they don't seem to be fighting over copyright though its the same idea again and again). So perhaps it is possible to do it with Amatuer bakers and Love productions not winning a court case against the BBC over the matter.

I suppose it's assessed on how close the individual elements of a show are identical to another show. TGBB is very distinctive in its different elements (Technical Challenge, Showstopper, Star Baker, tent, sketchbook of bakes, etc. etc.).

I wonder how much of TGBB's current format is a result of the BBC's input (for example, perhaps the use of a tent in the grounds of a country house or the sketchbook were suggestions of the BBC).

Presumably, Love Productions could only sue for parts of the original format 'owned' by them?

Ownership of copyright is in the contract and it is of no consequence if the format has changed over the years. If Love own the copyright then they own all of it. If BBC have worked with them to tweak the format over the years they would only have a share of the copyright if the contract says so.
I cant believe Love would have made the mistake of not tying the intellectual property down very clearly. In fact they must have done as they got compensation when the BBC copied the format for Hair. And that wasn't in a tent!

Maybe BBC should try something completely different and fresh. There's enough spin offs and knock offs on TV as it is, cannibalising each other. GBBO is unique, try something unique again. Or spend the saved money on something you struggled to get a budget for. If the show on C4 is any good, it will satisfy my baking needs fully

As for Wednesday I thought the right person went, despite the cute pink little fan and all. And Candice had finally run out of new lipsticks, she's back to the dark one

Not strictly true. They agreed an out of court settlement to avoid costly legal fees. As the premise had not been tested in court, it could have been very expensive for one side. The BBC decided not to risk it. They did the same with the painting challenge programme as well.

Various legal opinions have been given on what the BBC could and could not do with a new baking show, but nothing definitive as it's not been tested in court. They'd have to try something and see if Love sued.

As lovely as Selasi is he isn't judge material imho. It needs somebody with some professional technical gravitas.

As Love have very publicly become cash rich I seriously doubt the BBC would risk it. Not to mention stealing copyright is theft. Despite the input from the BBC, Love will have ploughed a lot of their own money into the making of this fabulous program and they quite rightly own the rights to it.

There have been a number of legal experts questioning whether 'intellectual property rights' would stand up in court. Obviously easy to register the name of a programme but much difficult to protect the concept of a programme. The marquee might be risky to use but two judges, two presenters, about a dozen competitors on workbenches and a series of different tests, is hardly unique.

I don't think BBC would like to be seen in such a gray area, possibly violating copyrights.

The copyright/intellectual property will be very much written down in the contract. It is a very tricky area but it is possible to define the elements which are included in the intellectual property and any business worth it's salt will have that very much written down as clearly as possible. There are lots of elements which combine to make the programme and these will all be listed out. It is not very easy to copy something so high profile and I suspect the reason the BBC paid up over Hair is they were not at all confident they would win and the publicity around losing the verdict would have been awful - big bully BBC knocking a small company and trying to steal their assets.

But it is only a variant on the various cooking programmes, sure if they made as a Masterchef spin off then it would be difficult for love to say that they could not do a Masterchef involving baking. Even big American corporations would be unlikely to claim they 'owned' something like baking.

No. Despite the nonsense put about by media companies to discourage file sharing copyright infringement is a tort. You would be sued for compensation not prosecuted for theft. Only if the Beeb raided LP's offices (physically or by hacking their computers) and removed all the files they have for the programme would it be illegal.

It is and it isn't. As detailed in another post there are a number of unique elements to the programme and it would be near impossible to argue that any imitation of them was not a breach of intellectual property rights. Simply giving something a new name is not sufficient to protect BBC from law suits which, even if successfully defended, could damage their reputation and those all important foreign sales.

is not sufficient to protect BBC from law suits which, even if successfully defended, could damage their reputation and those all important foreign sales.[/quote]
I think it's fair to say any such action would damage their domestic reputation, I honestly cant imagine that many buyers for foreign networks giving a damn.

Just an aside, is it just me or are all the Team GB female cyclists rather attractive?

The Chinese woman on the Extra Slice panel tells it straight.

She was a judge on the spin off 'bake off professionals' Creme de la Creme show where she was, to put it bluntly, a right misery guts.

Those two are my favourites. Andrew has very good and very bad days. Benjamina has above average. I really hope Andrew keeps to his higher standards and I'm willing Benjamina to pull out some fantastic bakes.


Of course I like the others as well. Not so much Candace who initially I did like a lot.

I am a little bit 'meh' about Andrew,,, his desperation to be Star Baker irritated me. I liked Tom and I hope Benjamina finishes strongly... and of course I have joined the cult of Selasie! That guy is such a dude!

I hope Benjamina doesn't do a Richard Burr by getting all the way to the final solidly....and then cocking it up

I think "solid" is the word for Benjamina. She is all round dependable and good but doesn't seem to do "wow". At least not visually, we can't judge her flavours and textures of course. If she gets to the final, which I think is quite likely, I think she might have to depend on the others slipping up in order to win. If such as Andrew and Jane hit top form on every task they would generally out do Benjamina's best efforts I feel.

Agreed, they'd need another master baker.

Head baker from Warburtons. we need more Boltonions on telly!

I agree, to be in with a chance, you probably think you need to win Star Baker at least once.

I think Andrew’s record is closer to Richard’s than Benjamina’s is, except that Andrew has tended to finish 2nd most weeks instead of first. Richard had two terrible weeks in the middle of the competition when he nearly went home (and he probably would have in European Cakes Week if they hadn’t called a non-elimination because they had one in their back pocket due to Diana’s quit.) which people tend to forget because he won SB so often.