MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Winnie the Pooh to keep reaping millions for Disney Group

Winnie the Pooh on the court

Winnie the Pooh, the honey loving bear at the heart of a royalty's lawsuit, can continue to reap millions for Disney, a Los Angeles appeals court ruled this week, tossing out the latest challenge to a disputed, lucrative contract.

A three judge panel in Los Angeles County Superior Court upheld a 2004 trial court decision which dismissed a lawsuit brought by Stephen Slesinger, Inc., the company which owns the rights to Pooh's image. Under a 1983 agreement, Stephen Slesinger, Inc. licensed to Disney North American radio and television broadcasting, merchandising and recording rights. But the Slesinger company has accused Disney of "material breaches of its agreement," saying the mammoth California-based entertainment empire cheated it out of billions of dollars in royalties by underreporting sales of Pooh products. The trial court dismissed the suit after determining that the Slesinger family had obtained confidential Disney documents stolen from the trash, and then said lies about how they'd received the papers. The verdict was upheld by the appeals court, which this week branded the Slesinger family conduct "egregious" in dismissing the lawsuit which could have cost Disney as much as 15 billion dollars. The family decried the ruling. "Disney continues to breach our contract, and continues to infringe our copyrights and trademarks," Pati Schlesinger said in a statement. "Every single day that Disney refuses to pay us what they are contractually obligated to pay, there are new breaches, which will only increase the many millions of dollars in damages they owe," she said. Slesinger said it plans to appeal to the California Supreme Court. "Disney knows this is not over, and they know the reasons why," Pati Slesinger said. "We will go as far as we have to go to and seek whatever legal remedy we can to receive justice in this case. However there's a second court case pending: that of Milne's grand daughter, Clare Milne who questions the original 1930 Slesinger agreement and with the help of Disney is battling to recover Winnie the Pooh's rights. Winnie the Pooh was created by British author A. A. Milne who in 1930 sold his rights in North America to Stephen Slesinger, a pioneer in commercial royalties who already had the rights to Tarzan. On his death the widow accepted a deal with the Walt Disney group which turned the character into a money making success. A first Slesinger/Disney group 1961 agreement was later renegotiated in 1983.