The legal battle between ABS-CBN and erstwhile talent Willie Revillame has reached another courtroom after the television network asked a Makati City court to issue a temporary restraining order against the airing of TV5's Willing Willie for alleged violation of copyrights.

In its complaint, the network said Revillame and ABC president Rey Espinosa violated infringement of copyright provided under section 172.1 of the Intellectual Property Code by running the month-old Willing Willie using the same format with the defunct Wowowee.

“After the summary hearing, [we pray] the honorable court issue a TRO from further copying the look and feel, of Wowowee, more particularly broadcasting the program Willing Willie is a mere rehash of the variety show Wowowee,” the petition read.

The law suit was the third TRO request that ABS-CBN has sought against Revillame. It was filed on Wednesday— roughly a week after the Court of Appeals junked the network's previous TRO petition.

According to ABS-CBN, Revillame has previously signed a contract with them where it was stated that “talents acknowledge that ABS-CBN is the sole and exclusive owner of the copyright of its shows in which he/she is to appear and that he/she waives or assigns, whatever moral or other intellectual property rights he/she may have in the show.”

Due to this, the network asked for petition for injunction and more than P107,000,000 in damages— including attorney’s fees and the “profits that the defendants have so far made from their collective acts of infringement.”

Source: PhilStar