A singer is suing the BBC for £10 million over a claim they "stole" her idea for a reality TV show.
Gladness Jukic, 32, claims the BBC3 makeup artist competition show Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star was "stolen" from an idea she pitched by email in 2018.
Ms Jukic - who performs under the stage name Bossiie - says her idea was sent to BBC commissioning editors as a nine-page Powerpoint document in May 2018, around the time the show was commissioned.
The singer claims her idea, entitled Bossiie: 10 minute makeover, which involved self-taught YouTube makeup artists competing and working with makeup brands, was so similar to the BBC show that she should be compensated £10 million in damages.
But lawyers for the BBC are disputing the claim and bidding to get it thrown out at the High Court.
They insist that Ms Jukic's idea did not actually reach anyone because her email "bounced back" and that in any case it was pitched to them after they had already commissioned their show.
Glow Up is a British reality television competition on BBC Three, devised to find new makeup artists, where contestants compete in weekly challenges, judged by industry professionals Dominic Skinner and Val Garland, as well as weekly guest stars.
The show first premiered with host Stacey Dooley in March 2019, followed by Maya Jama for the third series, and Leomie Anderson fronting from the fifth series onwards.
Ms Jukic, from Romford, Essex, says that she came up with her idea for a make-up reality show in November 2017 and emailed her pitch to the BBC on May 16, 2018.
However, the BBC say Glow Up was commissioned from Wall to Wall Media Ltd, a subsidiary of American behemoth Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, which pitched the idea under the working name "Face Off" in February 2018.
Ms Jukic now claims "her show had been stolen" and is bidding to prove that the "show aired without her consent" as the rightful copyright holder of the programme's concept.
She says she has suffered "injury to feeling and financial loss" because of her idea not being credited or paid for.
Ashton Chantrielle, for the BBC and Wall to Wall Media Ltd, told Mr Justice Thompsell in London's High Court this week: "She says her show has been used and her trademark has been used and that she sent her treatment to the BBC by email."
She also claims her treatment had the same name as the BBC show, but Ms Chantrielle said there was no evidence of this.
"The claimant claims to have sent the treatment to the BBC on 16 May 2018 by email," the barrister added.
"It is the BBC's position that it never had access to the treatment."
She said evidence shows Ms Jukic's email "bounced back" and was never successfully received because the Powerpoint attachment was too large for the BBC email system to accept.
The show was created "in house" and produced by W2W on commission from the BBC independently, the barrister continued.
"A formal pitch for the Glow Up show under the name 'Face-off: Britain's next make up star' was created and submitted to the BBC on 16 February 2018 before being commissioned in May 2018."
She said despite Ms Jukic's belief the BBC "copied" the idea, the "reality is it was not".
"They have no record of having received it, the concept for the Glow Up show was created by W2W before the date of the creation of the treatment and it was developed without reference to the treatment," she added.
The BBC also denies that the shows are similar except in "commonplace" ways which cannot be protected by copyright.
These alleged similarities include the use of a professional makeup artist as a judge, the reality format and the competitive element of the show.
"Teaming up with brands was in Ms Jukic's treatment, but is not a focus for the BBC show," the barrister added.
"It is not a show for YouTubers who are self-taught makeup artists."
The court heard that Ms Jukic has already lost one case in a bid to trademark the name "Glow up: Britain's next make-up star", but after a challenge by Warner Brothers she was left with a £2,500 bill for court costs.
Ms Jukic, who didn't attend the hearing and was not represented, is asking the judge for summary judgment in her claim.
The BBC and W2W are countering with a bid to strike out the claim and a summary judgment application of their own.
The judge has reserved his decision to be heard at a later date.