Kelly Wilson’s lawsuit against Disney claiming that the original Frozen trailer infringes on the copyright of her animated short “The Snowman” will be moving forward. District Judge Vince Chhabriadenied Disney’s claim to have the lawsuit dismissed. In his dismissal of Disney’s motion to dismiss he points out the similarities between the two works:
Both works are animated shorts that depict the following sequence of events: (i) asnowman loses his carrot nose; (ii) the nose slides out to the middle of a frozen pond; (iii) thesnowman is on one side of the pond and an animal who covets the nose is on the other; (iv) thecharacters engage in a contest to get to the nose first; (v) the screen pans back and forth from thesnowman to the animal, set to music, as they endeavor to get to the nose; (vi) the contest continueswhen the snowman and the animal arrive at the nose at the same time; (vii) the animal ends upwith the nose, leaving the snowman (and the viewer) to wonder if the snowman’s nose will become food for the animal; and (viii) in the end, the animal returns the nose to the snowman.Such a detailed sequence of events from the start to the finish of the works could be found by a reasonable juror to constitute the artistic expression of an idea, rather than merely a generic idea or series of generic ideas
He did approve two Disney motions including one that claims that because the trailer infringes and another claiming that all of the trailers infringe on her copyright.
With the judge denying the dismissal of the suit, it is presumed that the matter will go to a jury unless both sides agree on a settlement.