Court rejects Pooh case
2006-06-27 12:38
Washington - The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to consider a copyright row over beloved bear character Winnie the Pooh that has snarled American courts for more than a decade.
In 1930, British writer, AA Milne, creator of the pot-bellied bear, sold the North American rights to literary agent Stephen Slesinger, who already held rights to Tarzan.
Slesinger's widow later agreed to negotatiate the rights with the Walt Disney company, which has since made Winnie the Pooh one of its most profitable characters, through movies, books, and Pooh-imprinted products from sleeping bags to diapers.
The initial 1961 agreement was renegotiated in 1983.
A few years later the Slesinger family began a legal battle seeking additional royalties from Disney.
Meanwhile Clare Milne, the granddaughter of Pooh's creator, denounced the 1930 transaction and sought to regain rights to her grandfather's bear, with Disney's backing.
By refusing to take on Milne's case, the Supreme Court has de facto confirmed legal precedents that up to now have sided with the Slesinger family against Milne, but not against Disney.
Along the same lines, the court also declined to take on a lengthy dispute between two companies over the rights to Crusade in Europe, the World War II memoirs of former US president Dwight Eisenhower.
The British author wrote the Pooh books between 1924 and 1928. When he died in 1956, he did not bequeath ownership of the copyright to his family but to the Pooh Properties Trust.
His granddaughter sought to use a 1976 copyright law to terminate the licensing agreement and recapture ownership of the copyright.