Finding Lieutenant Columbo

In 1974, a man named Fred L. Worth published "The Trivia Encyclopedia," a 300-plus page tome of minutiae One of the questions asked what [TV detective] Columbo's first name is, and Worth's book claimed that "Phillip" was the correct answer. This is incorrect... but it isn't an error per se. Worth made up the answer entirely and intentionally. He figured that if anyone other books subsequently claimed that Columbo's first name was Phillip, that publisher would have ultimately "learned" the fact from his book -- they had to have, because no one else could be the source for a fact that Worth had made up.

The trap worked. A while later, Trivial Pursuit published a board game which included a question about Columbo's first name, using "Phillip," not "Frank," as the correct answer. Worth sued, claiming that Trivial Pursuit has stolen his intellectual property by re-using his made-up fact (and likely, had plagiarized many other facts from his book) without credit or compensation. He demanded $300 million for the violation of his copyright.

HOW WAS THIS RESOLVED? SEE HERE at Now I Know.