Many of those films have legally entered the public domain, many others have not (they are still protected under copyrights held by Paramount/Viacom). Boop? No longer represented by the heirs of Max Fleischer and King Features Syndicate? Does this make Harvey Comics – or by extension, its current owner Classic Media – the owner of the property? Or is the character now in public domain.įor the record: The master film elements to original Fleischer Betty Boop cartoons are still owned by Paramount Pictures (and are maintained at the UCLA Film and Television Archive). Judge Susan Graber said there was no break in the chain of title. On May 15th 1980, Harvey Cartoons transferred “Betty Boop and her Gang” to Alfred Harvey and his brothers. Harvey actively licensed the character in the early 1960s. Paramount assigned those rights to Harvey Films, Inc on June 27th, 1958. Court of Appeals (based in San Francisco) ruled against the Fleischers, saying in their decision, “If we ruled that AVELA’s depictions of Betty Boop infringed Fleischer’s trademarks, the Betty Boop character would essentially never enter the public domain.”Īccording to court documents, the Fleischer Studio originally assigned its rights to Betty Boop to Paramount Pictures on July 11, 1941. over its licensing of public domain Betty Boop poster images (for handbags and T-shirts).
![betty boop logo betty boop logo](https://www.cannabisbarcelona.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_1305.jpg)
The Fleischer Studio tried to sue Avela Inc. Fleischer Studios has been co-licensing (with King Features) the property (along with Pudgy, Grampy, Binmbo and Ko-Ko the Clown) for several decades now. Apparently the Fleischer estate has lost a court battle for the rights to Betty Boop, a character created by Grim Natwick at Max Fleischer’s studio in 1930.