Bit Parts

Summary Judgment Denied Defendant in Declaratory Action by Producer of To Kill a Mockingbird Broadway Play Seeking Amateur Theatrical Rights

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that a declaratory action over amateur theatrical rights — by the production company and the playwright for the Broadway presentation of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird — wasn't barred by the three-year statute of limitations for copyright ownership claims under §507(b) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Atticus LLC v. The Dramatic Publishing Co., 1:22-cv-10147. In 1969, Mockingbird novelist Harper Lee had given Dramatic a license for the exclusive "complete right throughout the world" to the theatrical "amateur acting rights" in her book. But in 2011, Lee notified Dramatic that she was terminating the license under §304(c) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Lee died in 2016. In March 2019, Dramatic filed an arbitration demand against Lee's estate for a decision that Dramatic still owned the exclusive rights to the amateur stage productions and the arbitrator decided in favor of Dramatic. That case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Meanwhile, in November 2022 Atticus sued Dramatic for a declaration that Atticus and its Mockingbird playwright Aaron Sorkin (an "involuntary plaintiff" to the lawsuit) "have the right, in relation to [Dramatic], to present any and all Second-Class, Stock, Amateur and Ancillary Performances [] of the Sorkin Play in the United States." In April, Southern District Judge Denise L. Cote ruled as a matter of law that Dramatic hadn't retained the exclusive rights for amateur Mockingbird productions. Dramatic then moved for summary-judgment dismissal of the case on statute of limitations grounds by arguing that Atticus' claim accrued when it learned in March 2019 of Dramatic's arbitration challenge. Recently denying the dismissal motion, District Judge Cote ruled: "Atticus' ownership rights in the Sorkin Play, however, are not in dispute here. Dramatic never claimed and does not now claim any ownership interest in the Sorkin Play." Judge Cote also noted: "Atticus had no right to join the arbitration proceeding between the Lee Estate and Dramatic and has no ability to appeal from the Arbitration Award." The district judge further found that Dramatic's dismissal motion was untimely because "Dramatic has identified the statute of limitations as a defense only after the Court ruled it does not have exclusive rights in amateur productions."