Film · Lyric
Thursday, 13 June 2002
Row over rights to Oscar statuette
A legal fight has begun over who owns the rights to the design of the Oscar statuette.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has moved to make the heirs of sculptor George Stanley relinquish any claim on the design of the Oscar.
The legal move follows a claim by the son of Stanley's widow, Richard Eddy, that he owns the copyright to the trophy and intellectual property rights to the Oscar in the US, Britain and Commonwealth countries.
Advertisement
In a case filed in Los Angeles on Monday, the academy said the designer himself had "never disputed the academy's ownership of the copyright of the Oscar statuette".
George Stanley was selected to design the statuette in 1928. The Academy registered the Oscar as a work of art in 1941.
