Copyright protection for Pippi Longstocking as a literary character?

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had to decide whether a retail chain violated the copyright exploitation rights of the Astrid Lindgren heirs through advertising carnival costumes depicting the literary character Pippi Longstocking.

A large retail chain used photographs of a young girl and a young woman dressed as Pippi Longstocking to advertise carnival costumes in its sales prospectuses throughout Germany. Both the girl and the young woman wore a red wig with standing-out plaits and a T-shirt as well as socks with a red and green striped pattern. In addition to the images of the costumed persons, the advertising also contained images of the advertised Pippi Longstocking costumes, of which the retail chain sold a total of more than 15,000 units. The retail chain did not use the name "Pippi Longstocking" in its advertising.

The holder of the copyright exploitation rights to Astrid Lindgren's artistic works issued a cease-and-desist notice to the retail chain and demanded discontinuance and damages, as it was of the opinion that the chain had violated the copyright exploitation rights to the literary character "Pippi Longstocking" through the publication of the images. In compensation for the violation, it demanded damages in the form of a licensing fee in the amount of EUR 50,000.00.

Both the Regional Court (LG) and the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne ordered the retailer to pay this licensing fee to the holder of the exploitation rights. The lower courts were of the opinion that the advertising for Pippi Longstocking costumes constituted a so-called unfree adaptation of the literary character of Astrid Lindgren, for which the retailer would have required permission from the rights holder.

Court Decision

By means of judgment of 17 July 2013 – Az. I ZR 52/12 – the BGH set aside the previous judgments.

The character of "Pippi Longstocking" created by Astrid Lindgren enjoyed copyright protection as a literary character, as the author had endowed her principal character with a distinctive personality through the combination of pronounced character traits and distinctive physical features.

However, there was no infringement of copyright in the present case. The protection of a literary character as a work in language could only be considered if the copyright-protected character was described by a distinctive combination of external features, character traits, abilities and typical behavioural patterns. The copyright in such a character was not infringed merely because only a few external features, such as the clothing style of the literary character in the present case, were adopted. These elements might well be sufficient to evoke associations with Pippi Longstocking and to recognise that it was intended to be a Pippi Longstocking costume. However, they were not sufficient to establish a violation of the copyright in the character of Pippi Longstocking.

Conclusion

A literary character enjoys copyright protection only through the combination of character traits and distinctive physical features. Alone the sale of costumes of a character known from books does not, according to the decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), constitute an infringement of copyright.

As a result, it now appears to be permitted for anyone to manufacture and sell carnival costumes of literary characters or characters known from films, as long as the name of the character is not used. This enjoys trademark protection as a title or trade mark.