Japan's Supreme Court has ruled that the copyright for the popular cartoon character Popeye in Japan is no longer valid.
The ruling this week overturned a 1992 lower court judgment that the country's complex 50-year copy-right rule started each time a cartoon character appeared in a new media.The copyright issue, including material like popular foreign songs, has long been a controversy between Japan and western trading blocs like the United States and the European Union.
King Features Syndicate Inc., a New York-based company which claims copyright of the spinach-eating sailorman, had filed a suit against a Japanese company for producing and selling neckties bearing the character without its permission.
Supreme Court Judge Masao Fujii, in handing down Thursday's decision, said copyright on the Popeye character in Japan expired in May 1990, overturning the lower court's ruling that upheld King Features complaint.
But at the same time Judge Fujii said the Osaka-based manufacturer of the neckties had no right to use the character because while it did not breach copyright rules, it violated use of the Popeye character as a legal trademark.
Under Japan's copyright law, material is protected for 50 years from the day it was first published.