Merchandiser seeks to cancel Disney's Pooh character rights

WASHINGTON -- Walt Disney Co., the second-largest US media company, is facing a new legal front in its battle over the right to the Winnie the Pooh characters.

Stephen Slesinger Inc., which owns the merchandising rights to the characters and traces its stake to a 1930 agreement with Pooh creator A.A. Milne, is seeking to cancel the US trademarks of 25 Pooh-related names obtained by Disney since 1996.

The petition before the US Patent and Trademark Office is the latest in a 16-year legal battle over the rights to the bear and his friends. In June, the US Supreme Court rebuffed efforts by Milne's granddaughter Clare Milne, acting with the support of Disney, to wrest the rights away from Slesinger.

Disney is seeking to have the petitions put on hold until a 2002 civil suit between the two companies can be resolved. In a Feb. 2 filing with the trademark office, Disney lawyers said the petition "raises the same issues and seeks effectively the same relief as the pending District Court action."

Disney, based in Burbank, Calif., said the two sides agreed in October that the trademark issues would be resolved after the completion of the contract and copyright aspects of the dispute.

A trial on copyright issues is set for April, according to the Disney filing. The copyrights for Milne's four Pooh books expire around 2020.

English author Milne sold the rights to his Pooh creations in 1930 to Stephen Slesinger, a New York literary agent. When Slesinger died in 1953, the rights passed to his widow, Shirley. In 1961, she agreed to license the rights to Disney in return for a cut of the larger company's revenue from sales of merchandise.

The battle began in 1991, when the Slesinger company sued Disney, claiming it had underpaid royalties on sales of Winnie the Pooh merchandise and owed hundreds of millions of dollars.