Top court refuses to hear copyright appeal by Clare Milne, grand-daughter of Winnie the Pooh creator.
(SourceYahoo)
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a copyright appeal by Clare Milne, the grand-daughter of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne. Clare was attempting to regain control of one of the most lucrative literary franchises in history.
A.A. Milne wrote the original Winnie the Pooh stories between 1924 and 1928. The name was inspired by Winnipeg Bear, a former mascot of the 34th Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian cavalry regiment. The regiment had donated the bear to the London Zoo during World War I.
In 1930, Milne granted a license to Stephen Slesinger, who promptly created Stephen Slesinger Inc. which still owns the rights. When Milne died in 1956, he left the rights to Winnie the Pooh to various organizations, which created a company called the Pooh Properties Trust. Many of these organizations later sold their rights to the Walt Disney Company.
Clare Milne, who was born after her grandfather died, had tried to terminate Stephen Slesinger Inc.'s copyright of Winnie the Pooh, using the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Disney was a co-plaintiff in the case. Slesinger and Disney also have a 13-year-old royalties dispute.
In refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court upheld a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that Clare Milne had no termination right to exercise because the Pooh Properties Trust, Disney and Slesinger had entered into an agreement in 1983, designed to block the Milne family from ever regaining copyright control.
