00:00
So Winnie the Pooh, now a slasher film. This is crazy to me. When I saw this, I said, What is going on here? Well, we're gonna get to the bottom of this with the patent Professor John Rizvi. He's a registered patent attorney. And he's here to explain how this whole thing came about. Go right ahead, sir.
00:22
Yeah, it's how are you pleasure to be here?
00:26
You know, a lot of people don't realize copyrights expire. And, and that's exactly what's what's happening with Winnie the Pooh, their copyrights expired last year. And it's in the public domain now, as of January 1 of 2022.
00:43
So, what happens here is when the copyright expires, things become public domain. And now you can take this idea and pretty much do whatever you want with it.
00:52
Absolutely. And, you know, it's hard when it's the, you know, something like a beloved character that we've all grown up with,
01:03
such as Winnie the Pooh, so, you know,
01:07
to have a horror version is really tough. And a lot of people are up in an uproar, like, how in the world can that happen? Why did why did Disney allow this to happen? Right, like, don't they have enough? Don't they have a huge investment in wanting to keep Winnie the Pooh? Is the Winnie the Pooh? We all know and love, like? Don't they have a vested interest in that and they do. The problem is that the copyrights are expired, and Disney no longer has
01:39
any exclusive rights to that original version of Winnie the Pooh. Now they have the Disney FIDE version, which is with the red t shirt and
01:49
the particular elements that they've added to Winnie the Pooh, that's still under copyright protection. So this directors really careful not to take those elements that are
02:01
that were created by Disney, for example, the spelling of honey, and Hu n and y. And Winnie the Pooh saying, Oh, bother. Like, those are elements that were not in the original book by a million eat out. Those are elements added by Disney. So the director of the film was careful not to take those, but they're not really necessary in order for you know, people watching the film, there's no doubt that it's Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and all the characters that that everyone loves. Except now, they're not lovable characters. They're they're going on a horror.
02:38
Rampage carnivorous rampage in the movie. So it's a little tough to take your 100% right and wrong with John Rizvi, the patent professor.com is his website. And you can find them on all social media platforms at the patent professor at the patent professor. And one of the things that I think is interesting here is the new tape, right? So it's Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey. And it talks about how Christopher Robin abandons Pooh and Piglet. And on the 100 Acre Woods, and all of them become fearful. And when Christopher Robin returns to the region, he's horrified to see what's become of his heart, his childhood friends, I think it's, it's a dark take. And it's not the first time we've seen this type of thing happen. But it's an interesting one, because who, you know, is really probably one of the softest characters out there, you know, a little fat bear. And he was designed I think to be cute, and you know, and, and friendly. And you know, that's the whole the whole shtick of Winnie the Pooh is it's him and his friends. And it's interesting to me, how, you know, they've taken that and kind of going gone into a different direction with it. From what you know it from your position, John reg. D, what is the the what are some other examples of patents that have run out where this has happened?
04:04
Well, I what I can say is there's going to be a lot more instances of this happening and so this is just the tip of the iceberg. Give these guys Bambi in the public domain, Peter Pan, non Disney characters Bugs Bunny Batman, Superman, this is for the first time we're going to have a lot of well known characters going into the public domain. And it didn't I don't think we're used to seeing especially as you mentioned, like Winnie the Pooh is a lovable bear. But these are all lovable characters and you know I don't want to as far as a spoiler alert on the movie but just to take other setting Imagine if Sesame Street if the same thing would that goes
04:49
in the public domain like in this is all make believe this isn't this isn't anything that's happened but what if Big Bird and Oscar conspire to kill Snow?
05:00
philosopher guests and like this, these are hurtful things for for people to see. And there's there's an outcry thing, wait a minute, you can't, it's almost as if people feel they have a vested interest and in some kind of rights to protect their cherished memories of these characters. And when when someone takes
05:22
turns into a horror film they want, they want somehow the law to step in and protect that and prevent that. And they, the law can't. I mean, it's the copyright term, when the copyright
05:37
first became the first duration was, was it was 28 years, and it's been expanding over time to now it's 75 years after the authors that are 95 years total. That's a lot longer than then copyright duration ever was. And now you're finding a lot of these a lot of IPS be going into the public domain for the first time.
06:02
You know, again, we're on with the patent professor, John Rizvi, you know, John, I look at this and I'm looking at the the article that I was reading where it says that they're the same production company jagged productions, is considering doing this with
06:20
Peter Pan as well. And, and a couple of others old titles, and I just think, you know, I mean, maybe it's a little easier to turn Peter Pan into a dark harbor type of thing. But it's just, you know, I mean, with it in the public domain, I guess you could do a lot of things with it. It doesn't have to become a slasher flick, but I guess that's what they specialize in. Right.
06:41
Exactly. It doesn't have to become a flash of flake, but it could also go gosh, I mean, any of these characters in the public domain could could also go obscene rated are like they could there's that there's no limitation. When something's in the public domain, there's really no limitation on where
07:00
someone's creativity can take these characters. And that's,
07:05
that's problematic as well, for a lot of people that are looking at it, like they don't want to see
07:10
you know, an X rated Elmo or an X rated any of these characters. Even even Winnie the Pooh like this, I mean, in this instance, is they've gone slasher and in horror, but they could go in a different direction. And once something's in the public domain, it's not only in the public domain, limited to certain variation, that Anything's fair game at that point.
07:37
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I appreciate the update. I think a lot of people did not know that this was happening and you know, if their kids say, hey, I want to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie, parents beware. It may be a little bit more than you bargained for. Again, we're on with uh, John Rizvi, that patent professor, check out his website, the patent professor.com. And you can check him out at the patent professor on all social media platforms, John Rizvi, I want to thank you for being on with us tonight.
08:08
Thank you, always a pleasure.