In the courts: Court confirms legal status of Happy Birthday to You!

AuthorC. Dennis Loomis
PositionPartner, BakerHostetler, Los Angeles, USA

Class action challenges Warner/Chappell’s copyright claim

In 2013, in separately filed lawsuits, Warner/Chappell’s copyright was challenged by several individuals and small production companies. One of these plaintiffs, Good Morning to You Productions Corp., was working on a documentary about Happy Birthday to You and was moved to action when Warner/Chappell demanded a USD1,500 license fee to reproduce the song in its film. These cases were consolidated into a single coordinated class action lawsuit (Good Morning to You Productions Corp., et al. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., et al., Case No. CV 13-04460-GHK (MRWx), US District Court, Central District of California), seeking a declaratory judgment that Warner had no valid copyright covering Happy Birthday and demanding restitution of the license fees paid by all members of the class during the three years preceding the lawsuit (the applicable statute of limitation for such recoveries).

The quest to trace copyright ownership

The tortuous legal history of Happy Birthday to You begins in 1893, when Clayton Summy filed for copyright registration in a songbook entitled Song Stories for the Kindergarten, assigned to him by author/composer sisters Mildred and Patty Hill. One of the songs, Good Morning to You, included the now-familiar Happy Birthday melody but was set to the words “Good morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning dear children, Good morning to all.” Mildred was the composer, and Patty wrote the Good Morning lyrics. In 1921, following Mildred’s death, third sister Jessica Hill filed for renewal of this copyright. Copyright protection for the Happy Birthday melody thus expired in 1949, at the end of the 28 year renewal term under the copyright law then prevailing.

Copyright claim covers lyrics only

Warner/Chappell concedes that the Happy Birthday melody is in the public domain, and bases its copyright claim exclusively on the Happy Birthday lyrics. Under US copyright law, rights in the words and the music comprising a song may be separately owned, separately copyrighted and separately enforced. Generally, the author of song lyrics owns the copyright in that work upon creation. (The exception is a work made for hire, where the employer owns the copyright in works created by its employees). Under US copyright law when these events occurred, an author obtained common law copyright in a work upon its creation. Once the work was registered with the US Copyright Office, the common...

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