Maxim Ali has provided his comments to Pravo.ru on a conflict surrounding the copyright to famous Soviet cartoon characters

Eduard Uspensky whose book was the basis for the Soviet cartoon Prostokvashino, is preparing a claim against the release of new series of the cartoons by Souzmultfilm.  According to the writer, his consent to the studio producing a series did not extend to the studio writing its own episodes and producing cartoons with his characters.

The Russian Supreme Court having summarised recent cases connected to protecting intellectual property rights, referred to the position of the Moscow City Court which has dismissed the claim.  According to the Court, the writer’s rights relate to the use of the characters in literary form, whereas the rights to authorise the use of the visual representations of the characters is held by the studio.

Contrary to this position, Senior Associate and Head of the IP/IT Practice at Maxima Legal, Maxim Ali recalls court practice in disputes relating to architecture, which concluded that different forms of the same architectural design, whether as a layout or completed building, are considered to one copyrighted product.  It may be reasonable to take this approach to other types of intellectual creations, including to those that include characters.  On such a basis, the visual form of the characters based on their literary description would be considered to be part of the same product, or at very least, a reworking of the literary original.

“Otherwise, writing a book that fully reproduces the plot of a film and its characters, it turns out, would not constitute a breach of the copyright to such a film – and this hardly meets the purpose of regulation in this area”, Maxim Ali noted.

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