LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- "Tonight Show" host, comedian Jay Leno, has filed a lawsuit to stop popular "joke books" containing material from his stand-up routines from being published.
Leno and NBC Studios filed the lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday to try and stop teacher Judy Brown from publishing the popular books that contain material uttered by famous comedians, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
The suit claims that Brown and her publishers have created 19 "joke books" over the last ten years and they all contain "substantial amounts of published comedic material that is wholly original with [the] plaintiffs."
The suit also states that Brown "apparently covered the L.A. comedy scene as a journalist, thus she has stolen the jokes of the very comedians she was supposed to be writing about. Ms. Brown has even sent representatives to comedy clubs to record comedians' routines, so she can then copy the jokes into her books and profit from the original comedic works of others."
Comedians Rita Rudner and Jimmy Brogan also joined Leno in the suit.
