Slesinger Family Wins 'Pooh' Copyright Case

[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.