Tolkien Estate

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Tolkien Estate trademark

The Tolkien Estate is the legal body which manages the property of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, including the copyright for most of his works. The individual copyrights have for the most part been assigned by the estate to subsidiary entities such as the J. R. R. Tolkien Discretionary Settlement and the Tolkien charitable trust. The various holdings of the Tolkien family, including the estate, have been organized under The Tolkien Company, the directors of which were Christopher Tolkien until August 2017 and his wife Baillie Tolkien, and J. R. R. Tolkien's grandson Michael George Tolkien. The executors of the estate proper were Christopher Tolkien (died 16 January 2020 [1] ), who was sole literary executor, and (succeeding J.R.R. Tolkien's lawyer Frank Williamson) Cathleen Blackburn of Maier Blackburn, [2] who has been the estate's solicitor for many years.

Contents

Rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising, stage and other rights in certain literary works of J. R. R. Tolkien including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were sold by Tolkien himself to United Artists in 1969, reportedly for a very small amount, [3] [4] and are currently owned by Middle-earth Enterprises (formerly Tolkien Enterprises), inc., a company controlled by Saul Zaentz until his death in 2014. [5]

Film royalties

In February 2008, the Tolkien Trust sued New Line Cinema, the studio behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for £75 million claiming they had not received "even one penny" from the films. [6] A request for punitive damages was denied in September 2008. [7] The case was resolved out of court on 8 September 2009 with the terms not made public.

In a press release, Christopher Tolkien stated, "The Trustees regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives. The Trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of The Hobbit." [8] [9]

Gambling devices

In November 2012 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Fourth Age Limited (later Tolkien Estate, Ltd) [10] and other plaintiffs sued several Warner Bros. affiliates alleging copyright infringement, breach of contract, and seeking declaratory relief, arguing that the defendants exceeded the scope of their rights. [11]

The suit alleged that by producing gambling and video games using his characters, the parties had ignored the limitations of the rights purchased more than four decades prior in 1969; contending the original licence to Tolkien's works was limited to the right to sell "tangible" products such as "figurines, tableware, stationery items, clothing, and the like", but did not cover "electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services". [12] Tolkien's estate claimed that the defendants actions had caused "irreparable harm to Tolkien's legacy".

On 11 March 2013, the Saul Zaentz Co. (doing business as Middle-earth Enterprises), the rightsholder for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit properties, filed an amended counterclaim against Fourth Age for declaratory relief, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and quantum meruit . On the same day, the Warner Parties filed an amended counterclaim against Fourth Age for breach of contract and declaratory relief. [11] [13]

The Tolkien Estate et al. attempted to block these countersuits under California's anti-SLAPP statute, claiming that Warner Brothers was interfering with their right to petition under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. On 11 July 2013, US District Judge Audrey Collins denied a motion to dismiss, disagreeing that what Warner Brothers was doing was making "disguised claims for malicious prosecution" and wrote "these claims arise out of the parties' divergent understanding of the Warner Parties' and Zaentz's rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. They are routine contract-based claims and counterclaims." In October 2015 the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that ruling. [14]

The lawsuit was confidentially settled in July 2017. [15]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

On 13 November 2017, Amazon acquired the global television rights to The Lord of the Rings' appendices found at the end of The Return of the King. Amazon committed to a multi-season television series titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . It features stories that are set in the Second Age. [16] Amazon said the deal included potential for spin-off series as well. [17] The press release referred to "previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings". Amazon is the producer in conjunction with the Tolkien Estate and The Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema. [18]

Christopher Tolkien's resignation

On 31 August 2017, at age 93, Christopher Tolkien resigned as a director of the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien trust, while remaining as the literary executor. [19] He died on 16 January 2020 at the age of 95. [20]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. R. R. Tolkien</span> English writer and philologist (1892–1973)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

<i>The Lord of the Rings</i> 1954–1955 fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Tolkien</span> British book editor, son of J. R. R. Tolkien

Christopher John Reuel Tolkien was an English and naturalised French academic editor. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father's posthumously published work, including The Silmarillion and the 12-volume series The History of Middle-Earth. Tolkien also drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings.

<i>The Lord of the Rings</i> (1978 film) 1978 animated fantasy film by Ralph Bakshi

The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 British-American animated fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi from a screenplay by Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle. It is based on the novel of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien, adapting from the volumes The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of fantasy races—Hobbits, Men, an Elf, a Dwarf and a wizard—who form a fellowship to destroy a magical ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron, the main antagonist.

The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy of epic fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson, based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by British author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003). Produced and distributed by New Line Cinema with the co-production of WingNut Films, the films feature an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis and Sean Bean.

<i>The Return of the King</i> (1980 film) 1980 animated musical television film by Jules Bass

The Return of the King is a 1980 American-Japanese animated musical fantasy television film created by Rankin/Bass and Topcraft. It is an adaptation of part of J. R. R. Tolkien 1955 high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It takes its name from The Return of the King, the third and final volume of the novel, and is a sequel to the 1977 film The Hobbit.

<i>The Hobbit</i> (1977 film) 1977 animated film directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.

The Hobbit is a 1977 American animated musical television special created by Rankin/Bass and animated by Topcraft. The film is an adaptation of the 1937 book of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien; it was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on Sunday, November 27, 1977. The teleplay won a Peabody Award; the film received a Christopher Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saul Zaentz</span> American record company executive and film producer (1921–2014)

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Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, is a subdivision of the Embracer Freemode division of Embracer Group and formerly a trade name for a division of The Saul Zaentz Company. The subdivision owns the worldwide exclusive rights to certain elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's two most famous literary works: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These elements include the names of characters contained within as well as the names of places, objects and events within them, and certain short phrases and sayings from the works.

The word hobbit was used by J. R. R. Tolkien as the name of a race of small humanoids in his fantasy fiction, the first published being The Hobbit in 1937. The Oxford English Dictionary, which added an entry for the word in the 1970s, credits Tolkien with coining it. Since then, however, it has been noted that there is prior evidence of the word, in a 19th-century list of legendary creatures. In 1971, Tolkien stated that he remembered making up the word himself, admitting that there was nothing but his "nude parole" to support the claim that he was uninfluenced by such similar words as hobgoblin. His choice may have been affected on his own admission by the title of Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel Babbitt. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey has pointed out several parallels, including comparisons in The Hobbit, with the word "rabbit".

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Many adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, an epic by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien, have been made in the media of film, radio, theatre, video games and recorded readings.

The Tolkien Trust is a British charity founded in 1977 that manages the money received from J. R. R. Tolkien's estate. Specifically, the trust enables its trustees, the members of Tolkien's family, to donate regularly to whichever causes they may choose. The trust states that such charitable causes include the "arts, education, environment, homelessness, international development, international relations and peace building, migration, prison reform, and UK and international health and medical research".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle-earth</span> Continent in Tolkiens legendarium

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Reuel Tolkien</span> British literary preservationist (1929–2022)

Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien was a British literary preservationist who was the youngest child of J. R. R. Tolkien.

References

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  2. "cathleen blackburn". maier blackburn. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
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  4. "Tolkien sold film rights for £10,000". Evening Standard 13 April 2012 (retrieved 2022-09-14).
  5. "Middle-earth Enterprises - ENTER SITE".
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  7. "No punitive damages in Rings case". BBC News . 26 September 2008.
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  11. 1 2 https://www.scribd.com/document/153237062/Tolkien-Order - Fourth Age Limited et al. v. Warner Bros. Digital Distribution Inc et al.
  12. "Tolkien estate sues Hobbit producers over video and gambling games". The Guardian . 20 November 2012.
  13. https://www.scribd.com/document/123187959/Rings-counterclaims - Case 2:12-cv-09912-ABC-SH Document 21 Filed 01/18/13
  14. Gardner, Eriq (28 October 2015). "Warner Bros. Can Sue Tolkien Estate For Breaching 'Hobbit' Contract". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  15. "J.R.R. Tolkien's estate and Warner Bros settle Hobbit and Lord of the Rings lawsuit". The Telegraph. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  16. "Amazon will run a multi-season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series". Ars Technica. 13 November 2017. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017.
  17. "Amazon announces 'Lord of the Rings' TV show". CNN. 13 November 2017. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017.
  18. Koblin, John (13 November 2017). "'Lord of the Rings' Series Coming to Amazon". The New York Times.
  19. "Christopher Tolkien resigns as Tolkien estate director". Tolkien Society. 15 November 2017.
  20. Seelye, Katharine Q.; Yuhas, Alan (16 January 2020). "Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father's Legacy, Dies at 95". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.