Montreal: Guy A. Lepage and his producers at Montreal’s Avanti Ciné Vidéo have reached an out-of-court deal with JWTwo Entertainment in their dispute over Love Bites, the U.S. adaptation of Avanti’s hit sitcom Un gars, une fille.

According to the agreement signed by both parties, Lepage and Avanti win back the U.S. rights to Un gars, une fille, and JWTwo can resume airing Love Bites, which was pulled from U.S. broadcaster TBS and the Internet, as a result of a Sept. 27 injunction obtained by Lepage in Quebec Superior Court.

The injunction lasted until Oct. 6. The two sides reached their new deal on Oct. 10, allowing Avanti and Lepage to sell the U.S. rights to Un gars, une fille to another American producer.

Lepage argued that the American version contravened the licence agreement in that it did not resemble the original series, say court documents. The French-language original, Un gars, une fille, was a weekly half-hour sitcom about a couple in their 30s, and ran between 1997 and 2003. The American version presented a radically shortened format, each episode running at 2.5 minutes.

Judge Kirkland Casgrain agreed with the Quebec producers’ assertion that the scaled-down format meant that the U.S. show was no more than a promotional vehicle for its sponsor, Sunsilk hair products.

Love Bites is coproduced by comedian Paul Reiser (Mad About You) with JWTwo, a division of major U.S. advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

This is the first time Lepage (Tout le monde en parle) has taken issue with an adaptation of the Un gars, une fille concept, which has sold to 20 countries. Love Bites stars Montreal native David Julian Hirsh (Naked Josh) and Lauren Bittner and shot in Toronto.