Slesinger Family Wins 'Pooh' Copyright Case

[Not Afraid]

We were just alking about this on-going case yesterday. The latest ruling is not good news for Disney.

Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment Against Disney
Slesinger Pursuing Damages Against Disney Including Terminating US and Canadian Television, Media and Merchandising Rights to Winnie the Pooh


LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, of the United States District Court, Central District, issued a major decision in the federal copyright case, granting Stephen Slesinger, Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment, effectively ending the Walt Disney Company's efforts to take back the Winnie the Pooh copyright.

MORE (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070216/nyf082.html?.v=71):

[Disneyphile]

Does this mean they'll tear out the ride? :D

[mousepod]

Oh bother!

[JWBear]

Does this mean they'll tear out the ride? :D

One can only hope.

[Alex]

Nothing is settled yet, they still have to go through the lawsuit to determine if Disney actually did anything wrong and the Slesingers are entitled to damages.

All this is is confirmation that the Slesingers are still in the game. There are likely years to go still before anything is really settled.

And even if they win, they won't be able to give the Disney version of the characters to another licensee, just the Milne version, which is worth considerably less money.

Ultimately Disney and the Slesingers will just come to a new agreement.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Speaking of $ and Pooh...
http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a805/a805.gif

[Gemini Cricket]

Oooh. They may 86 the Pooh ride? Awesome.
:)

[Snowflake]

Ooh, I just found out our firm represents the Slesinger Family.
:eek:

[innerSpaceman]

I'm so confused by this. I was following this case pretty closely till about 2 years ago, when the Schleshinger's case was basically thrown out of court .. and their chances of ultimately prevailing went from 50/50 to practially nill.

I'm going to have to do some research to satisfy my own morbid legal curiosity.

[Alex]

The lawsuit dealt with today technically does not involve Disney. It wsa Milne's granddaughter suing Slesinger to recover the rights to Pooh which, if they won, they would then give directly to Disney.

Essentially, in retaliation, Disney was trying to cut out the Slesinger's altogether.

This was dismissed so the Slesinger claim to various copyrights, trademarks, and marketing licenses is affirmed.

The original suit was dismissed (not for factual reasons but for misconduct tainting the proceeding) and the Slesingers are still appealing that. If they lose those appeals, I'm not clear on whether the Slesingers are barred from starting a new proceeding making similar claims.

If they lose that and the Slesingers lose their appeals then all that happens is Disney continues making millions on Pooh and giving 4% to the Slesingers.

That's my understanding, anyway.

[€uroMeinke]

If I understand correctly - the lawsuit in question concerns only the merchandise rights. The Slesinger's get a royalty for each bit of pooh someone buys. But Disney owns the rights to the characters and story (courtesy of prior deals with the Milne estate). So, the Pooh Ride will stay, stuffed pooh will make money for the Slesingers, a video of the Pooh ride is still in question (the original complaint dealt with whether or not videos were merchandise), and God knows what an mpg file of a pooh movie might be. - but the ride ain't going anywhere over this.

[JWBear]

pity.