Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, won their bid to dismiss a lawsuit over her best- selling cookbook “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Getting Your Kids Eating Good Food.”

A federal judge in New York yesterday dismissed the suit filed by Missy Chase Lapine, author of “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals.” Lapine claimed Jessica Seinfeld plagiarized her book and that Jerry Seinfeld defamed her by calling her a “nut job” and “wacko” on national television.

“The similarities identified by plaintiffs are the result of the similar medium of expression used (cookbooks) or of the similar subject matter that both cookbooks address (hiding healthy foods in kid-friendly books),” U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote in a court opinion.

Swain threw out copyright, trademark and unfair-competition claims against Jessica Seinfeld, ruling that a reasonable jury couldn’t find that “Deceptively Delicious,” published in October 2007, infringed on Lapine’s book. The judge also declined to exercise jurisdiction over Lapine’s state-law claims, including the defamation claim against Jerry Seinfeld.

Swain, noting that both books include directions for pureeing vegetables for use in kids’ meals, said the two cookbooks had many differences and appeared to target separate groups of readers.

State-Law Claims

Lapine is considering whether to appeal Swain’s dismissal of her federal copyright, trademark and unfair-competition claims, according to Howard Miller, her lawyer. She plans to refile the state-law claims in New York state court, Miller said.

Swain’s decision “left very much alive the defamation claim against Jerry Seinfeld, and claims against HarperCollins for breach of contract and misappropriation,” Miller said in a statement.

Lapine’s suit, filed last year, sought unspecified damages from the Seinfelds and from HarperCollins Publishers LLC, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’sNews Corp.

In her complaint, Lapine claimed she sent a 139-page book proposal to HarperCollins in 2006. HarperCollins rejected the book and it was published by Perseus Books Group in April 2007.

Lapine claims “Deceptively Delicious” stole her “concept, expression methodology, organization, structure, design, styling, look and feel,” including ways to hide spinach and other vegetables in foods that children want to eat.

After the suit was filed, Jerry Seinfeld called Lapine a “wacko” on CBS Corp.’s “Late Show With David Letterman” and joked that many “three-named people do become assassins,” according to Lapine.

The case is Lapine v. Seinfeld, 08-cv-128, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 11, 2009 00:01 EDT