Walt Disney has won a nearly two-decade-old legal battle over royalty rights to the cartoon character Winnie The Pooh.
Late New York television and film producer Stephen Slesinger who held the exclusive merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh works had transferred them to Disney in 1969 for a regular royalty, reports The Daily Express.
However, Slesinger's heirs slapped a 1.3-billion-pound copyright violation case on Disney in 1991, alleging that Stephen Slesinger Inc has been deprived of its royalties to the loved bear.
Now, a U.S. court has ruled that Stephen Slesinger Inc. did not have any rights that Disney could breach.