Donna West, in her 2007 lawsuit against Tyler Perry, accused the actor, writer and producer of stealing material from her play 'Fantasy of a Black Woman' for his film 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman', starring Perry, Steve Harris, Kimberly Elise and Shemar Moore, about a woman, whose grandmother helps her get over being dumped by her husband for a younger woman. The film won Perry several awards and nominations.

West claims there was a strong possibility that Perry had gained access to the script of her play performed 3-times in Dallas in 1991, West claimed Perry could have seen her play, at the time he presented his plays to the Dallas Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1998.

However, on Tuesday, jurors in the East Texas town of Marshall ruled in favour of Perry, on the basis of his testimony that his script of 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman', was an original work. They found that Donna West had not presented evidence in support of her copyright infringement claim.

Veronica Lewis, one of Perry's lawyers, in her e-mail to The Associated Press, writes: 'We are very pleased that the jurors understood that Tyler Perry is an incredibly talented person who has no need to copy the work of others.'

However, West's lawyers are already planning to seek a new trial. Willie Briscoe, one of West's lawyers said: 'Obviously we're very disappointed. We thought we'd made our case. I believe that we conclusively demonstrated Mr. Perry had access to Ms. West's work, that there were striking similarities between her work and his work.'

West, a resident of North Texas, sued Tyler Perry Inc. for selling the movie online and via mail, including Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc. for funding and distributing the film, asking for damages and profits from the 2005 film that earned Perry $50-million from theatres.