The federal unitary enterprise, Soyuzmultfilm, is seeking to invalidate a 10-year deal that an eponymous post-Soviet predecessor struck with U.S.-based Films by Jove (FBJ) in turbulent 1992. The contract allowed FBJ to screen 547 Soviet cartoons outside Russia and the former Soviet republics, and was extended to 35 years 12 months later.
Alexander Papenkov, lawyer for Soyuzmultfilm, said earlier this week that hearings in the case had only just started. He also said the deal had been signed by Soyuzmultfilm, which was merely a leaseholder at the time and had no right to set the ten-year term in the contract with FBJ.
In 1999, the Soyuzmultfilm leaseholder ceased to exist and was transformed into a joint stock company, while its property rights were returned to the government-controlled federal unitary enterprise Soyuzmultfilm, the plaintiff in the current case. "We want the deal to be invalidated from December 21, 1999 - when the leaseholder ceased to exist," Papenkov said.
He also said the case could not be considered before because the American side had failed to turn up or send any confirmation that it had been informed. The court eventually resumed hearings in absentia of FBJ April 9 and continued them April 16, the lawyer said.
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov said last week he was in talks with FBJ, a company half-owned by a Russian, about buying out the rights to screen Soviet cartoons and returning them either to Soyuzmultfilm or the currently formed state-run children's channel. Joan Borsten, FBJ co-owner, confirmed the plans to sell the collection. But Papenkov said, "As far as I know, Usmanov has suspended the deal" pending the court decision.
