January 2004
Who owns A.A. Milne's Pooh?
In an update to our previous article on Winnie the Pooh (http://www.briffa.com/news/art29Pooh.htm), the long running battle regarding the ownership of merchandise rights for A.A. Milne's popular stories about Winnie the Pooh continues to run. The latest chapter in this seemingly endless saga concerned whether the Slesinger family, to whom A.A. Milne assigned the merchandising rights to his stories in 1936, validly own the rights. A.A. Milne's daughter, Clare Milne had argued that the rights did not belong to the Slesinger family due to new copyright legislation enacted by the US legislature. Disney funded her claim and, if successful, she was expected to assign the rights she still held in the property to Disney. The US federal appeal court did not agree with Clare Milne's case, and held that the assignment of rights to the Slesinger family was valid.
The failure of Disney in this action leaves the way open for the Slesinger family to argue their case that Disney owe them many millions of pounds for overseas sales of Winnie the Pooh merchandise. Winnie the Pooh is Disney's most lucrative property, and is believed to be worth between $3-6 billion.
BRIFFA Comment:
The best way to avoid costly arguments about ownership of a property such as Winnie the Pooh is to draft clear and unambiguous terms in any licence or assignment dealing with the rights. However, the contract between A.A. Milne and the Slesinger family dates back to the 1930s, and it would be incredibly difficult for such an agreement to forecast future events, such as the passing of new legislation. Also, with such a valuable property at stake it is perhaps understandable that the parties in this dispute are so trenchant. To secure your position as a licensor of intellectual property that receives royalties, it is advisable to insert terms whereby the accounts of a licensee can be inspected to ensure the royalty calculation is accurate.