Last week during the Republican National Convention, CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert brought back his arch-conservative former alter ego — also named Stephen Colbert — from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to comment on the goings-on in Cleveland. The brief stunt apparently didn’t go over well with the lawyers at Comedy Central, forcing Colbert to a new intellectual property work-around: introducing a completely new character who just happens to look and sound exactly like him.

They also claim to own the Colbert Report segments like his “Word” routine.

Lawyers should know better than to pick a fight with comedians. Even if they win they look like idiots.