Frozen copyright case: judge may not let it go

A jury looks set to decide whether Disney’s hit film Frozen infringed copyright belonging to a US film maker, following a judge’s comments.

Assessing Disney’s motion for a summary judgment on Friday (April 10), Judge Vince Chhabria said he had a “fairly strong inclination” that a jury should decide if the movie infringed the copyright protecting a short film called The Snowman.

According to news website The Recorder, Chhabria, a judge at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, said there were substantial similarities between the two films.

The dispute, which began in March 2014, centres on a copyright claim by film maker Kelly Wilson, who accused Disney’s teaser trailer for Frozen of being “substantially similar” to her short film The Snowman.

Chhabria had already rejected Disney’s motion to dismiss the case in August last year.

Released in November 2013, Frozen follows a princess, a reindeer and a snowman, and their journey through the winter countryside. It earned an estimated $110 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

The Snowman, released in 2010, tells the story of a snowman who attempts to stop a group of hungry rabbits from eating his carrot nose on an icy lake. He later becomes friends with them.

In Wilson’s complaint she said Disney’s teaser trailer for Frozen was not related to the film’s subject and created confusion. She said that both her work and the Disney trailer show a snowman battling to save his nose before finding friendship with former enemies.

After failing to dismiss the case last year, in March Disney filed for a motion for a summary judgment that the trailer did not infringe the short film.

Disney claimed that no-one involved in the development of the trailer had access to Wilson's film.

But Chhabria reportedly said a jury should decide whether the Disney official with creative responsibility for the trailer also had access to Wilson’s film.

Chhabria has not yet made a final judgment on the motion. An opinion is expected within the next week.

Disney did not respond to a request for comment.