WASHINGTON : The US Supreme Court has declined 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, A.A. 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 negotiate 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 grand-daughter sought to use a 1976 copyright law to terminate
the licensing agreement and recapture ownership of the copyright.
AFP/yy
