Paramount Pictures and the estate of “The Godfather” author, Mario Puzo, are in dispute in the Manhattan courts concerning the ownership of the copyright to the mafia characters.

In March 2012 Paramount Pictures, which released the epic movie trilogy, attempted to prevent the publication of a new book about the Corleone family. The book was based on a screenplay written by Mario Puzo before his death in 1999 and was commissioned by his estate. Paramount claims that when it bought the rights to the original book in 1969 that it had also bought the rights to use any of the book’s characters in other works. Mario Puzo’s estate claims that it has the rights to any new novels and is now seeking confirmation of this from the courts.

While the outcome of the case may ultimately be decided on the contents of the 1969 contract, it highlights the difficulty in protecting fictional characters.  The Saul Zaentz Company, which owns the worldwide rights to many J.R.R. Tolkien works, has taken a different approach to protect its characters. In 2007 it registered “HOBBIT” as a trade mark in a number of classes, including class 43 for pubs, and has recently threatened legal action against a pub in Southampton called The Hobbit. It has also registered trade marks against other J.R.R. Tolkien characters and with the release of the first part of “The Hobbit” trilogy set for release later this year; it may make further use of this approach to protect its brand interests.

Contributed by Leo Moore