Universal and its affiliates are being sued by the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust for allegedly breaching a settlement agreement by distributing and advertising its movie “Disturbia” (2007).

Sheldon Abend was the literary agent who represented Corneil Woolrich, the author of the short story upon which Hitchcock’s classic “Rear Window” (1954) was based. This is not the first time that Abend sued over rights to the story: in the 1980s, when "Rear Window" was shown on TV, Abend took Hitchcock and the film’s star, Jimmy Stewart, to court, claiming that the defendants needed to secure the rights to the story that was the basis of the movie before they could show it on TV. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court, whose ruling on the matter established the “Abend rule” which deals with the continued distribution of a derivative work during the copyright renewal period of the underlying work.

The case also ended with a settlement between MCA (Universal’s predecessor) and Abend, which gave the MCA the right to distribute and advertise "Rear Window", in return for a percentage of the film’s gross revenue. The Abend Trust is claiming that the terms of this settlement are being breached by Universal, because Disturbia is based on Rear Window. A Federal judge in New York dismissed the case, saying the works were not substantially similar within definitions provided by copyright law, but the Abend Trust is appealing that decision, saying that the creative team behind Distrubia used many plot elements from Rear Window and also marketed the film as a modern version of the classic. An LA Superior court is set to hear the preach of contract case.

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For more on copyright infringement, take a look at An Introduction to U.S. Copyright Law byTracey Batt

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