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1 August 2014Copyright

Disney out in the cold in Frozen copyright case

Disney could be heading to court to defend the trailer for its hit film Frozen after its attempts to dismiss a copyright infringement claim were denied.

The media conglomerate had attempted to throw out a copyright claim from filmmaker Kelly Wilson, who accused its teaser trailer for Frozen of being “substantially similar” to a short film she created called The Snowman.

But Vince Chhabria, sitting at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, said the sequence of events in  the two works were “too parallel” to conclude that no reasonable juror could find the works substantially similar.

The denial means the case looks likely to go to trial unless both parties settle.

Released in November last year, Frozen centres on a princess, a reindeer and a snowman, and their journey through the winter countryside. It broke box-office records and earned an estimated $110 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

The Snowman, released in 2010, tells the story of a snowman who attempts to stop a group of rabbits from eating his carrot nose on an icy lake before becoming friends with them.

It was screened at eight film festivals and is also available online.

In Wilson’s initial complaint, filed in March this year, she said Disney’s teaser trailer, released prior to the film’s release, was not related to the film’s subject and created confusion.

The complaint said both Wilson’s work and the Disney trailer show a snowman in a battle to save his nose before finding friendship with former enemies.

Issuing his judgment, Judge Chhabria noted similarities, including a snowman losing his carrot nose and an animal who wants the nose being on an opposite side of the lake to the snowman.

Chhabria also noted similarities with how the camera moved in relation to the music.

While there are differences between the pair, such as different animals, and a difference in the overall mood, the two works “nevertheless enjoy a parallelism,” Chhabria wrote.

“The sequence of events in both works, from start to finish, is too parallel to conclude that no reasonable juror could find the works substantially similar. This sequence of events does not merely represent a premise from which a story is launched; it is a major part of the whole story in both works,” Chhabria said.

Wilson’s additional claims that the entire film and its other trailers infringed were dismissed because “no scene from the trailer” features in the final film.

Disney did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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13 April 2015   A jury looks set to decide whether Disney’s hit film Frozen infringed copyright belonging to a US film maker, following a judge’s comments.
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