By: Thomas Stanford, Staff Editor

January 31, 2025

The Walt Disney company is no stranger to the intricacies and the process of copyright litigation. In fact, Disney may be widely known as one of the most litigious companies in the modern world. So much so that the fundamental cornerstone of copyright protection today is colloquially known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act due to Disney’s forceful lobbying for the bill in order to protect the copyright of their seminal character. But that is not to say that Disney has not been subject to the other side of copyright litigation. In fact, considering the number of internationally famous characters that Disney owns the rights to, it is inevitable that there would be multiple claims against them. However, as is typical of the mighty mouse, not many of them come to fruition. In 2017, Denise Daniels filed suit claiming that the concept for the movie Inside Out was stolen from a pilot she produced in the early 2000s and had pitched to Disney in the same years.[1] However, this suit was dismissed by the district courts and then affirmed by the appeals courts in 2020.[2] Some cases are not so easily dismissed, and Disney typically settles those out of court. Most recently this happened in a copyright claim against the movie Frozen in which Kelly Wilson sued claiming that the film stole core creative themes and the character of Olaf from her 2010 short film The Snowman.[3] After losing their motions to dismiss, Disney settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.[4] In 2020, a suit was filed against Disney for allegedly stealing nearly the entirety of the characters, plot, and theme of the movie Moana.[5] This lawsuit was eventually dismissed for failing to be filed in a timely manner after the film’s release.[6] However, following the release of Moana 2, the plaintiff, Buck Woodall, sued Disney again. This time the suit is claiming infringement from the series as a whole and seeks significantly higher damages.[7] Woodall has claimed that the total amount of damages owed to him in this case is around ten billion dollars, one of the largest amounts for a copyright suit ever. However, with Disney’s legendary legal division, it is unclear whether this claim will amount to anything.

 

For these sorts of copyright cases the plaintiff must prove that she “(1) ‘owns a valid copyright in [the work]’ and (2) Defendants ‘copied protected aspects of [Plaintiff’s work].’”[8] If there is no direct evidence that a defendant copied the work in question it may be proven by unlawful appropriation, which presumes the copying.[9] The second prong can be shown through evidence that the properties are substantially similar and that the infringing property contains protected elements of the plaintiff’s work.[10] The element of substantially similar is proven through a two-part analysis of the intrinsic and extrinsic test.[11] The intrinsic test looks at whether a reasonable observer would find “a substantial similarity of expression of the shared idea.”[12] The extrinsic test analyzes “whether two works share a similarity of ideas and expression based on external, objective criteria.”[13] Finally, the plaintiff must also show that the defendant had access to the work.[14]

 

Copyright suits often fail at the hurdle of proving access or substantial similarity to the protected work. However, in the original lawsuit by Woodall against the first Moana film, the judge denied Disney’s motions to dismiss based on the substantive grounds of access and substantial similarity.[15] Disney did not dispute the intrinsic element in the first lawsuit. Instead they relied on expert testimony to refute the similarities.[16] The access portion was also quite heavily weighed in Woodall’s favor as there is evidence that Woodall prepared not only a presentation package for Disney via an intermediary but also an animated trailer.[17] The similarity between the protected works in this case seems to extend far beyond the ones in the Frozen case by a vast degree. Instead of one copied character and general themes for a portion of the film, there is evidence to support numerous copied characters and entire plotlines. Although the evidence against Disney seems overwhelming in this case, and it might likely be settled for a large sum, one can never underestimate the power of the mouse

[1]Gene Maddus, ‘Inside Out’ Copyright Lawsuit Rejected by Appeals Court, VARIETY (Mar. 16, 2020) https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/inside-out-copyright-lawsuit-appeals-court-1203535474/

[2] Id.

[3] Complaint for Copyright Infringement and Declaratory Relief, Wilson v. Walt Disney Co., 2014 WL 1264530 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2014).

[4] Dominic Patten, ‘Frozen’ Copyright Lawsuit Settled By Disney, DEADLINE, (June 25, 2015) https://deadline.com/2015/06/frozen-lawsuit-disney-settlement-jennifer-lee-chris-buck-1201456048/

[5] First Amended Complaint, Woodall v. Walt Disney Co., 2020 WL 8569496 (C.D. Cal. Jul. 22, 2020).

[6] Woodall v. Walt Disney Co., No. CV 20-3772-CBM(Ex), 2024 WL 5329913 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 1, 2024).

[7] Gerta Cross, Writer sues Disney for $10B, claiming ‘breathtaking’ similarities between his script and ‘Moana’ movies, USATODAY (Jan. 14, 2025) https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2025/01/14/disney-moana-lawsuit-copyright/77677345007/

[8] Woodall, 2024 WL at *4.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Smith v. Jackson, 84 F.3d 1213, 1218 (9th Cir. 1996).

[13] Id.

[14] Rentmeester v. Nike, Inc., 883 F.3d 1111, 1117 (9th Cir. 2018).

[15] Woodall, 2024 WL at *16

[16] Id.

[17] Id.