Here’s a legal action worth singing about.
A settlement has been reached in a copyright dispute over the popular song “Happy Birthday to You,” with a judge vacating a trial scheduled to begin on December 15.
In the dispute, Rupa Marya, Robert Siegel, Good Morning to You Productions Corp. and Majar Productions brought a class-action claim seeking to invalidate Warner/Chappell Music and Summy-Birchard, Inc.’s claim to the song’s copyright.
The plaintiffs contended that, since the defendants didn’t own the copyright to the lyrics, the plaintiffs were owed “millions of dollars of unlawful licensing fees” that they had shelled out for the song over the years.
The order supporting the settlement, filed in federal court in California on Tuesday, did not disclose the terms of the settlement.
In September, Judge George R. King — who issued Tuesday’s order — ruled in favor of filmmakers, including director Jennifer Nelson, who had challenged Warner/Chappell Music’s decades-old copyright claims to the song.
King ruled that a copyright filed by the Summy Co. in 1935 granted only the rights to specific arrangements of the music, not the actual song itself.
“Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the ‘Happy Birthday’ lyrics, Defendants, as Summy Co.’s purported successors-in-interest, do not own a valid copyright in the Happy Birthday lyrics,” King found.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.