Hospital Steps In to Thwart Disney Threat
LONDON (Sunday Herald) -- The Walt Disney Company has backed away from a showdown with the owner of a Motherwell shop after having its wrists slapped by Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Irene Ryder has owned the Tinkerbell children's clothes shop for the past 15 years. The store is named after the fairy in the classic children's story Peter Pan. But in April she received a letter from Disney, which owns the Peter Pan film rights, accusing her of breaching its copyright and insisting she 'discontinue any further use of Tinkerbell.' Ry-der wrote an apologetic letter explaining that she had no idea she was breaking the law. But Disney insisted it could not give her a license to use the name Tinkerbell and ordered her to remove the sign from above the shop and to change all headed stationery. However, Disney has now been told to back down by Great Or-mond Street Hospital, to which Peter Pan author JM Barrie gifted the copyright of his book. For a one-off dona-tion of £500, Ryder has been allowed to keep using the name Tinkerbell. A spokeswoman for the children's hospital said: 'Walt Disney has the copyright to their own animated image of Tinkerbell but copyright to the ac-tual name of Tinkerbell, and the character itself, belongs to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Sheila Philp, prop-erty manager of the Barrie's Birthplace tourist attraction in Kirriemuir, which is run by the National Trust for Scotland, said: “In April 1929 Sir James M Barrie made over to Great Ormond Street Hospital 'the future annual income in perpetuity of the copyright, literal and dramatic, in Peter Pan. 'In 1987, when the copyright ran out after 50 years, an act of parliament was passed to allow the hospital to continue to receive royalties.”
LONDON (Sunday Herald) -- The Walt Disney Company has backed away from a showdown with the owner of a Motherwell shop after having its wrists slapped by Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Irene Ryder has owned the Tinkerbell children's clothes shop for the past 15 years. The store is named after the fairy in the classic children's story Peter Pan. But in April she received a letter from Disney, which owns the Peter Pan film rights, accusing her of breaching its copyright and insisting she 'discontinue any further use of Tinkerbell.' Ry-der wrote an apologetic letter explaining that she had no idea she was breaking the law. But Disney insisted it could not give her a license to use the name Tinkerbell and ordered her to remove the sign from above the shop and to change all headed stationery. However, Disney has now been told to back down by Great Or-mond Street Hospital, to which Peter Pan author JM Barrie gifted the copyright of his book. For a one-off dona-tion of £500, Ryder has been allowed to keep using the name Tinkerbell. A spokeswoman for the children's hospital said: 'Walt Disney has the copyright to their own animated image of Tinkerbell but copyright to the ac-tual name of Tinkerbell, and the character itself, belongs to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Sheila Philp, prop-erty manager of the Barrie's Birthplace tourist attraction in Kirriemuir, which is run by the National Trust for Scotland, said: “In April 1929 Sir James M Barrie made over to Great Ormond Street Hospital 'the future annual income in perpetuity of the copyright, literal and dramatic, in Peter Pan. 'In 1987, when the copyright ran out after 50 years, an act of parliament was passed to allow the hospital to continue to receive royalties.”