“While we respectfully disagreed with the court’s decision, we are pleased to have now resolved this matter.”
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Warner contended its copyright to the lyrics came through the Hill sisters’ publisher that it had acquired.
A trial set to begin next week in Los Angeles could have finally decreed whether the lyrics sung to generations of birthday boys and girls around the globe really is in the public domain. The details of the settlement were not immediately available. The rights to the song were eventually purchased by Warner/Chappell for $US25 million when they bought a successor company to Summy in the 1980s. After King ruled the assignment invalid, the Hill Foundation and ACEI claimed to be the valid owners to the song’s copyrights. Most people expected that the lawsuit would only allow a clawback of about three years worth – since that’s the statute of limitations.
The tune was composed by two Kentucky sisters in 1893.
Jennifer Nelson, who was billed $1,500 to use “Happy Birthday to You” in a documentary she is doing on the song’s history, said she is “delighted” with the outcome of the case. Their publisher was Clayton F. Summy Co. But when the song has been used for commercial purposes, such as in films, Warner has enforced its rights, and took in an estimated $2 million in royalties for such uses each year.
The parties involved in a huge legal fight over the English language’s most popular song, “Happy Birthday to You”, have arrived at a settlement.
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King wrote that the record “shows that there are triable issues of fact as to whether Patty wrote the “Happy Birthday” lyrics in the late nineteenth century and whether Mildred may have a shared interest in them as a co-author”.
