Writer Sues Sheridan, Paramount Over Yellowstone Copyright

Writer Lauren J. Salkin has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Taylor Sheridan, Paramount, and other parties, alleging that Sheridan's hit series Yellowstone was stolen from her 2016 pitch for a show titled Sovereign Nation. The lawsuit, filed in California federal court on Friday, August 21, 2026, claims that Salkin submitted a pilot script and additional materials to Sheridan's production company, Elevate Entertainment, in 2016 and 2017. According to the legal documents, she was later informed that Sheridan was "unavailable for TV projects." However, within months of that rejection, Paramount greenlit Yellowstone, which premiered on the Paramount Network in June 2018.

The lawsuit alleges that the similarities between the two projects extend beyond general genre conventions. Salkin's filing outlines specific expressive choices she claims were lifted, including a tribal casino serving as the institutional center of political and development power, a signature confrontation in the tribal chairman's office over expansion beyond reservation boundaries, and the use of trust land and a 99-year lease structure as key plot mechanisms. The suit also notes that Salkin's...