Law360, New York (November 3, 2014, 10:15 AM EST) -- For more than three decades, no type of lawsuit has been more certain to fail than those asserting that the latest hit movie or television series infringes the copyright in a screenplay or other literary work. Authors convinced that they are the victims of literary theft usually file suit in the Ninth Circuit, the primary residence of the motion picture and television industries. That jurisdiction, however, has been a virtual graveyard for their claims. Judges have routinely brushed aside the claims, finding almost invariably that the works at issue lack substantial similarity as a matter of law. Recently, however, four Ninth Circuit courts have permitted claims to survive dispositive motions....