Editing Coming to America (section)

===Lawsuit===
The film was the subject of the ''[[Buchwald v. Paramount]]'' civil suit, which the humorist [[Art Buchwald]] filed in 1990 against the film's producers on the grounds that the film's idea was stolen from his 1982 [[film treatment|script treatment]] about a rich, despotic African potentate who comes to America for a state visit. [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] had [[option (filmmaking)|optioned]] the treatment from Buchwald, and John Landis was attached as director and Eddie Murphy as the [[leading actor|lead]], but after two years of [[development hell]] Paramount abandoned the project in March 1985. In 1987, Paramount began working on ''Coming to America'' based on a story by Eddie Murphy.<ref>[http://www.cardozoaelj.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/marcus.pdf Buchwald v. Paramount Pictures Corp. and the Future of Net Profit] — retrieved May 2015</ref><ref>Thane Rosenbaum, ''The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right'' [https://archive.org/details/mythofmoraljusti0000rose/page/182 page 182].</ref> Buchwald won the [[breach of contract]] action and the court ordered monetary damages. The parties later settled the case [[out of court settlement|out-of-court]] before an appeal going to trial.<ref>Thane Rosenbaum wrote, "In 1995, the syndicated columnist [[Art Buchwald]] prevailed after a seven-year legal battle against [[Paramount Pictures]], claiming that he had submitted the idea, and the original script, for the [[Eddie Murphy]] film, ''Coming to America,'' without ever being properly compensated or acknowledged for his efforts. The trial court eventually agreed with Buchwald, although the damage award that he received was considerably less than what he had sought, and even less than what he eventually had to pay out in legal fees." --''The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right'' [https://archive.org/details/mythofmoraljusti0000rose/page/182 page 182].</ref>

In August 2022, Paramount filed a lawsuit against JMC Pop Ups LLC for creating a temporary version of McDowell's, the fictional fast food restaurant similar to [[McDonald's]], via the [[Copyright Claims Board]], a tribunal created in 2020 to deal with such matters. The pop up restaurant had operated in [[Springfield, Virginia]], and [[Cherry Hill, New Jersey]], in 2022 prior to the suit. McDowell's was featured in both the original movie and its sequel.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ansari |first=Talal |date=2022-08-28 |title=Paramount Sues Company Behind McDowell's Pop-Up, Citing 'Coming to America' Infringement |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/paramount-sues-company-behind-coming-to-america-mcdowells-restaurant-pop-up-11661692993 |access-date=2022-08-29 |issn=0099-9660}}</ref>