Fri, Jan 23, 2004 page6

• Disney braces to slug it out over royalties for Pooh

  • AFP
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  A sticky US$1 billion lawsuit against Walt Disney Co over the cash generated by the lovable bear Winnie the Pooh will finally go to trial next year, lawyers said Wednesday.

  The decision was revealed as Disney was dealt a new blow in its bid to hang onto Pooh profits.

  An appeals court Wednesday refused to take up an appeal by Pooh creator A.A. Milne's granddaughter, a Disney ally, seeking to reverse an earlier ruling barring her from reclaiming the rights to grandfather's characters.

  Los Angeles Judge Charles McCoy last week tentatively set a Jan. 10, 2005 date to hear the decade-old breach of contract suit brought by Patricia Slesinger, who claims her family was shortchanged out of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties by the Walt Disney Co, lawyers said.

  The case centres on the US marketing rights to the honey-guzzling character, created by British author A.A. Milne and popularized by the Disney entertainment empire.

  The heirs of Stephen Slesinger, who bought the US rights from Milne in 1930 and began licensing them to Disney in 1961, claim the powerful firm has cheated them out of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

  Among the issues at stake, is revenues from computer software, DVDs and videotapes, merchandise that mostly comes in formats that came into being after the agreement was signed.

  Pooh revenues, said to be the most of any character that Disney markets, are estimated to be in the region of US$3 billion to US$6 billion a year.

  Slesinger has asked for a judgment that would include compensatory damages of at least US$700 million, unspecified punitive damages, and the right to terminate all future rights of Disney to exploit lucrative range of Winnie the Pooh characters.

  The epic case has been fraught with delays, complications and dramatic twists over the years.

  In 2002, Walt Disney Co suffered a major blow when it lost an appeal involving sanctions to be slapped on it for the destruction of key files linked to the battle of the bulging bear.

  The judge has set a Feb. 24 hearing date for claims that the Slesinger side to the dispute stole documents from trash bins on Disney movie studio lots.

  Disney claims that Slesinger hired private detectives to break into its headquarters to steal papers related to the case.

  Slesinger attorneys deny the charge, but acknowledge recovering some paper from publicly accessible dumpsters.

  Following a parade of lawyers, Slesinger is now represented by Hollywood celebrity attorney Johnnie Cochran, who successfully defended football icon O.J. Simpson against charges that he murdered his wife in 1994.

  Cochran said earlier: "We need to get all this stuff out of the way about who went through what trash" to get to trial.

  Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in San Francisco refused to take up an appeal by Milne's granddaughter fighting an earlier ruling barring her from reclaiming the rights to grandfather's characters.

  An attempt by Claire Milne, an ally of the Disney company, to reclaim Pooh's merchandising rights was rejected by a federal judge in Los Angeles last May.

  "It's common knowledge that Clare Milne was unfortunately born disabled and that these complex matters are beyond her understanding," said a Slesinger family spokesperson.

  "Obviously Disney was behind this manipulation from the start," the spokesperson said.

  Disney had hoped that her case would bolster its merchandising rights battle with the Slesingers.

  "Hopefully, Disney is done delaying and is ready to go to trial," Cochran said after the appeals court decision on Wednesday.
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