Hey, They Took My Trivia!

After playing too much Trivial Pursuit, jaded fans often complain that they have heard the questions already. But for Fred L. Worth of Sacramento, Calif., this happened last June on his first time around. The queries were familiar, Worth claims, because he wrote them. Last week in Los Angeles federal court Worth slapped the Canadian creators of the game with a $300 million lawsuit, charging copyright infringement. A former air-traffic controller, Worth is the author of nine books on trivia and currently writes for the ABC quiz show Trivia Trap.

Worth spent two months comparing his books with the game and concluded that the authors cribbed heavily from his Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia of 1978 and its sequel of 1981. He alleges that the Genus edition is 33% his work and the Silver Screen version 22%. Worth says the authors often filched his exact wording, even picking up his mistakes. Chris Haney, one of the game's three authors, claims that dozens of people have sued them. Says he: "A guy in Ireland claims he invented the game ten years ago." Trivia fans this year are expected to shell out about $750 million to buy 22 million games.