The case was brought by The Astrid Lindgren Company, which is owned by the author’s children and grandchildren. The aim of that company is to protect Lindgren’s oeuvre. The company has also registered the trademark rights to Pippi Longstocking in Sweden.
The soft drinks brand’s website states that Pipi has been around since 1971 and is named after Pippi Longstocking. The soft drink bottles show a blond girl with two pigtails in her hair.
The bloody revenge of Bambi and Winnie the Pooh: horror makers making off with Disney characters now that rights have expired
The Swedish newspaper Vimmerby Tidning was the first to report on the lawsuit. Lindgren’s grandson Olle Nyman was quoted in it. “If someone uses the name Pippi in a commercial context without our permission and also associates it with Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, we are obliged to take action,” he told the newspaper.
The newspaper also writes that the company OSTRC is behind the soft drink brand. That would have tried to register ‘Pipi’ in Sweden a few years ago. Before then, The Astrid Lindgren Company had never heard of the brand.
Lindgren died in 2002 at the age of 94. She wrote the first book about Pippi Longstocking in 1945.