LOS ANGELES -- Walt Disney Productions and rival Filmation Associates have settled a copyright-infringement suit over Filmation's plans to produce and distribute 'The New Adventures of Pinocchio,' an attorney said Monday.
The two animation companies were due to begin trial Feb. 17 on Disney's claim that Filmation's characters resembled and were based upon characters in Disney's copyrighted 1940 cartoon classic, 'Pinocchio.'
But attorneys for both sides appeared Monday before U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler to announce the suit had been settled, Disney attorney Howard King said.
King said the settlement bars either side from discussing the agreement, which he said would not be filed in court.
'The parties are only authorized to say they have settled to their mutual satisfaction,' King said.
Henry Holmes, an attorney for Filmation, said the company is still planning to release 'The New Adventures of Pinocchio' and two other animated films that Disney claimed were based on its works, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Jungle Book.'
Disney and Filmation, a Woodland Hills-based subsidiary of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable Inc., have battled nearly two years over the 19th Century Italian story of the wooden puppet who became a boy. Stotler has issued rulings favorable to both sides.
She refused Disney's request in 1985 for an injunction to block production of 'The New Adventures of Pinocchio.'
Stotler last year handed Filmation a setback by refusing to throw out the Disney suit and ruling there was enough similarity between the two sets of characters to require a trial.
Disney claimed in its April 1985 lawsuit that Filmation's planned 'New Classics Collection' of 13 animated films included seven films based on Disney works in violation of Disney's copyrights.
