Tintin And The Copyright Mystery

There's a big commotion amongst fans of the fearless reporter Tintin, whose copyright was controlled in the beginning by Les Estudios Herge.  However, after the death of author George Remi (better known as Herge), there were two societies  linked  to the exploitation rights.

The Herge Foundation managed and directed by Remi's widow Fanny, promoted the conservation of the studios and works, and Tintin Licensing T.L. managed the exploitation rights.

Everything changed when Herge's widow married Nick Rodwell giving him the control of the society which then became Moulinstart SA.  The hard politics of Rodwell's management as head of the societies was so strict that even documentaries of the artist that had never been seen before were censured as well as endless web pages of fans.

It is not the first time that Moulinstart goes to court, for years they haven't hesitated to sue any publisher that prints images of Herge without their permission.

This time the ones sitting on the bench were the small Dutch society of admirers Herge Genootschap for reproducing elements that appear in some of Herge's works as you can see on their website. Here and here.

Herge who asked for 35.000€ compensation have lost the first round as the Dutch High Court ruled in favour of the modest fan club, thanks to an existing contract signed in 1942 that acknowledges the exclusive publication rights of the series "The Adventures Of Tintin" in French or any other foreign language, to Belgian publishers Casterman. Moulinstart and Casterman made an announcement together on June 10th 2015.

Moulinstart SA and Ediciones Casterman are very surprised by the decision made on the 26th May 2015 by the Court Of Appeal in The Hague (Holland).  The point in question is the request by Moulinstart  SA to the association Herge Genootschap regarding the contract with the association with the purpose of reproducing in publications pictures of Herge.

The Tribunal seem to have got confused about the Tintin copyright Moulinstart and Ediciones Casterman.  

The contract between Ediciones Casterman and Herge specifies that Ediciones Casterman have the publication rights on paper and in all languages for "The Adventures Of Tintin".  All the other rights including the right to exploit extracts of the books and pictures belong to Herge.

As a result only Ediciones Casterman possess the publication rights of "The Adventures Of Tintin" on paper, and only Moulinstart can exploit and authorise pictures and book extracts that represent Tintin or any other characters created by Herge on film.

Of course nothing is said about film or theatre rights and it's clear that the battle has only just begun, but from Ladytrademark blog’s we will keep you informed.

Author: Carolina Sánchez Margareto

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