The man who sued in federal and state court claiming that the idea for Apprentice was his has settled both cases out of court.
Mark Bethea and Velocity Entertainment Group settled their claims against Mark Burnett, Donald Trump, and NBC, but his lawyers “declined to disclose terms of the settlement,” according to the AP.
Late last week, Mark Bethea’s lawyers sent out a press release saying they were going to trial one week from today, claiming that “Burnett used his idea for a reality-based television show called ‘C.E.O.’ and turned it into ‘The Apprentice.'” Bethea says he “registered a 5-page treatment of his idea for ‘C.E.O.’ with the Writers Guild of America in Los Angeles on August 30, 2000” and later pitched it to Mark Burnett’s producing partner Conrad Riggs.
