Intellectual Property Newsletter
THE RIGHT TO TINKERBELL
Great Ormond St Hospital has become involved in court action over the right to use the name ‘Tinkerbell’. JM Barrie had bequeathed
the copyright in Peter Pan to the hospital in 1937 but, now, an American company claimed that it paid the hospital an honorarium
for the right to use ‘Tinkerbell’ in 1952, and has now accused the Disney Corporation of stealing it for profit. As a result,
New Tinkerbell Inc, which produces merchandise around the fairy, is suing Disney which made the 1953 version of Peter Pan
after buying the rights from the hospital. New Tinkerbell Inc is claiming that Disney is guilty of trade mark infringement
because it is selling products which feature the name and cartoon likeness of Tinkerbell: ‘We want them to stop using the
words Tinkerbell or Tinker Bell.’ The problem had not arisen earlier because, it is claimed, Disney had accepted the copyright
by buying New Tinkerbell products, then selling them under its own name. Last year, however, it started to put out its own
Tinkerbell merchandise.