LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lawyer for the company suing Walt Disney Co. over merchandise royalties to Winnie the Pooh said on Wednesday he was withdrawing from the case, leaving his client to seek new counsel.
Bert Fields, a thorn in Disney's side from other cases as well as the Pooh trial, told Reuters that he and his legal team at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman would withdraw shortly as counsel for Stephen Slesinger Inc., which holds the U.S. merchandising rights to the honey-loving bear.
Fields declined to discuss the reasons for the move but said that he still believed Slesinger would beat Disney in court.
Slesinger has employed a number of law firms during the more than a decade that its owners, the family that acquired rights from British author A.A. Milne around 1930, have sued Disney, accusing it of shortchanging payments due.
A spokesman for the family declined to comment on the change in lawyers in the California Superior Court case but said that the Slesingers were still confident they could win hundreds of millions of dollars or more with their suit.
Disney has dismissed their claims without merit and earlier this month Chief Executive and Chairman Michael Eisner said he could not imagine a scenario under which his entertainment company would lose control of the Pooh franchise.
Bert Fields, a thorn in Disney's side from other cases as well as the Pooh trial, told Reuters that he and his legal team at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman would withdraw shortly as counsel for Stephen Slesinger Inc., which holds the U.S. merchandising rights to the honey-loving bear.
Fields declined to discuss the reasons for the move but said that he still believed Slesinger would beat Disney in court.
Slesinger has employed a number of law firms during the more than a decade that its owners, the family that acquired rights from British author A.A. Milne around 1930, have sued Disney, accusing it of shortchanging payments due.
A spokesman for the family declined to comment on the change in lawyers in the California Superior Court case but said that the Slesingers were still confident they could win hundreds of millions of dollars or more with their suit.
Disney has dismissed their claims without merit and earlier this month Chief Executive and Chairman Michael Eisner said he could not imagine a scenario under which his entertainment company would lose control of the Pooh franchise.
