The organisers of the Cannes Lions festival and the New York Festival are in dispute after the latter claimed a new judging system introduced in the media category was a “copy” of its own scheme.

Last year Cannes was rocked by accusations of collusion in the category, with former Ikon boss and juror Dan Johns telling B&T last year “the best work didn’t win gold”.

An overhaul to the format, which will see 40 people working in eight sub groups of five over three days to shortlist, before a final jury of eight comes together to deliberate the overall winners in the category.

But the New York Festivals’ organisers International Awards Group (IAG) claim this new system is a copy of the one they have been using for four years.

Jim Smyth, CEO of IAG, said: “It’s unfortunate an organization as large and successful as the Cannes Lions cannot improve their judging system without copying our innovations and risking another scandal and lawsuit.

“We created the two-tier judging system four years ago and now have a patent pending on our revolutionary matrix scoring system to protect our intellectual property from being copied by others.

“Both of our systems are widely heralded by the international advertising community as being revolutionary and the best judging system in the industry.”

The two organizations have been at loggerheads previously over naming rights to the AME Awards in Asia Pacific, with IAG claiming it had copyright on the name after Cannes Lions and publisher Haymarket launched the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards in 2002, which has since been renamed the Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness.