⚖️ 'Leopold the Cat' Ignites Intellectual Property Dispute

Multiple rights holders have come forward to claim ownership of the character, accusing the filmmakers of copyright infringement and presenting conflicting interpretations of the brand’s chain of title.

The production company Fresh-Film sent a formal demand to the producers, seeking a freeze on the project and 5 million rubles in compensation. Fresh-Film cites exclusive adaptation rights to Arkady Khait’s books and agreements with the heirs of Vyacheslav Nazaruk, the artist behind the character’s original visual design. Concurrently, US-based Rubstein Properties, LLC claimed ownership of the rights to the 2015 animated series, labeling the new film an unauthorized derivative work. The American firm points to Russian Supreme Court precedent, which vests the rights to Soviet-era characters in the successor studios that created them.

Welcome Media and Kinotsukh have rejected the claims, arguing that their opponents are conflating distinct legal assets: the literary source material, the graphic artwork, and the character from the audiovisual work itself. According to an independent legal audit, no single entity owns the entire brand. Furthermore, a recent precedent from the Intellectual Property Rights Court (case SIP-954/2023) confirmed that an artist’s authorship of illustrations does not automatically grant them ownership of the rights to an animated character.

At present, legal experts believe the filmmakers can proceed with production, though Leopold’s visual design has yet to be fully cleared. The case clearly signals to the market that reviving Soviet-era intellectual property now requires multi-layered and costly rights audits.