Slesinger Family Wins 'Pooh' Copyright Case

innerSpaceman · 02-16-2007, 06:21 PM

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 · 02-16-2007, 06:32 PM

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.

02-16-2007, 06:21 PM	#1
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	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.
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02-16-2007, 06:32 PM	#2
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	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.
	Submit to Quotes