Ministry Has Rights to Soviet Cartoons
The state wants to take control of the use of Soviet cartoon characters. Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Golutva has written a letter to Soyuzmultfilm informing it that it owns the rights to all animated films made by the studio before August 3, 1992, and that the characters and images from those films can only be used with the studio’s permission. The case is not so simple, however. Russian law does not define the owner of the rights to the cartoon characters, and the ministry will have to face the creators of those characters in court.
There are 1379 animated films in federal state unitary enterprise Soyuzmultfilm Film Studio Film Fund’s collection. In 2003, the successor organization to the Soviet Soyuzmultfilm was divided into two enterprises, one controlling the film studio and the other controlling the film collection. The films generate $100,000-300,000 per year from showings on Russian television.
Vladimir Entin, director of the Center for Legal Defense of Intellectual Property, notes that “In Soviet times, Soyuzmultfilm owned the copyrights to whole film, but not to the drawings, music or literary basis, according to article 486 of the 1964 Civil Code of Soviet Union.” He said that the Ministry of Culture’s position is its private opinion. Mikhail Fedotov, UNESCO Chair of Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Rights, agrees with Entin.
The Soyuzmultfilm film fund is negotiating with AFK Sistema, the owner of the Children’s World chain, on the sale of products using the images of ten Soviet cartoon characters. Current makers of products using those images were unaware of those negotiations. The Fratti NV, makes children’s Nu Pogodi shampoo using one character on an agreement with Alexander Khait, the brother of one of the character’s creator. Fratti NV general director Khamed Vatfa said that the company had an agreement with Soyuzmultfilm, but when Khait registered the trademark witn Rospatent in 2003, Vatfa made a new agreement with Khait.
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All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 26, 2008
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