Good Grief! ‘Peanuts’ Music Owner Fires Off Four Copyright Suits

Photo Credit: Sandy Ravaloniaina

What do the federal government, video game publisher GameMill Entertainment, Heritage Auctions, and belt-buckle specialist Buckle-Down have in common? For one thing, they’re facing infringement lawsuits from Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP), which controls the Peanuts music catalog.

LMFP yesterday fired off all four complaints, which arrive hot on the heels of Sony Music’s deal for a controlling stake in Peanuts Holdings. At present, Sony Group subsidiaries own 80% of the iconic brand, with Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz’s family possessing the remaining 20% interest.

But as mentioned, the litigation is technically being spearheaded by Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which has tapped entertainment attorney Marc Jacobson as its counsel. A rep for Jacobson told DMN that “there is no connection between the filing of these cases and Sony Music’s recent acquisition announcement.”

However, to state the obvious, a third party’s aggressively suing over allegedly infringing Peanuts music usages is a thorn in the side of the broader IP portfolio – especially when the characters themselves were clearly licensed from Peanuts Holdings.

That the latter now counts one of the world’s largest music companies as its owner is significant as well; the four-suit frenzy has undoubtedly caught Sony Music’s attention. Might the catalog-minded major be open to buying the Peanuts music?

In any event, as summarized in the legal text, LMFP is the “television and film production company and music publisher” founded by the namesake Lee Mendelson over six decades ago.

Mendelson, who passed away in 2019, served as executive producer on a number of Peanuts television specials, among them A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

LMFP also owns and administers Vince Guaraldi’s library of Charlie Brown music; Guaraldi composed well-known works including “Linus and Lucy” for the Peanuts television programs.

Enter LMFP’s litigation rampage, beginning with a relatively straightforward claim that the Department of the Interior (DOI) this past December infringed on “O Tannenbaum” in “a widely distributed, animated digital Christmas greeting depicting activities the Department of [the] Interior might undertake.”

While it probably goes without saying, the DOI allegedly failed to license the work; the department subsequently deleted the corresponding social media posts, according to the action. The DOI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Next, Heritage Auctions allegedly synced “Linus and Lucy” to a Facebook and Instagram promotional video without authorization when advertising Peanuts collectibles.

“At this time, Heritage has not been served with or reviewed the complaint. If and when we receive it, we will review the allegations and respond as appropriate,” a rep said to DMN.

Buckle-Down, for its part, is alleged to have infringed on the same work in a TikTok and Instagram promo vid plugging Peanuts items; the company didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publishing.

This leads to the final and most interesting of the rapid-fire suits: GameMill allegedly hired musicians “to compose and record music…that was very similar – but not identical – to” Guaraldi’s “Skating” and “Linus and Lucy.”

These alleged soundalike works then made their way into the gaming company’s Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club release last year as a “running audio accompaniment,” per the action.

Unsurprisingly, the complaint dedicates quite a bit of ink to rehashing a musicologist report breaking down the works’ alleged overlap. Put briefly, the plaintiff is alleging “verbatim and near-verbatim copying of discrete, original expressive elements” extending “beyond unprotectable ideas, scènes à faire, stock elements, or elements in the public domain.”

GameMill didn’t respond to a comment request in time for publishing. The relevant game’s soundtrack, seemingly composed by non-party Levon Louis, is live on YouTube.