Professor Patry points to an "unusual suit" involving the infringement of a painting by a TV series. According to a Reuters report:
"New York-based artists Clifton Mallery and his wife Amnau Karam Eele charged in a suit filed on Thursday in Manhattan that 'Heroes' creators based their plot line -- about an artist who can paint the future -- on a short story, a painting series and a short film the couple exhibited in 2004 and 2005. . . . The artists said in the lawsuit that two people who identified themselves as writers from NBC's 'Crossing Jordan,' which also developed by 'Heroes' creator and executive producer Tim Kring, attended an April 2005 exhibition of their work at Hunter College in New York City."
This is not the first unusual suit against the show. See the Wikipedia summary of the "Emerson lawsuit" here.
