Lopez plays a waitress with an abusive husband in Enough

New York writer Allyson Turner said she gave Sony the idea in script form.

In the 2002 movie Lopez plays a waitress who flees from, and eventually kills, her abusive husband.

Turner's lawyer Gregory Danenberg said it was "a clear-cut case of copyright infringement". Sony was not available for comment on the federal court case.

'Convinced'

Turner said she became aware of Sony's alleged plagiarism after friends congratulated her on having her idea developed into a Jennifer Lopez movie.

A subsequent viewing of Enough convinced Turner that the film was an adaptation of her script, she said.

"The storyline, dialogue, scenes, costume props, and idiosyncratic characteristics of the characters in both works are uncannily parallel and lead to a single inescapable conclusion," said Danenberg.

"Sony Pictures' apparent belief that it could come away from this unscathed is truly stupefying."