Yellow Film & TV has taken the dispute over Aku Hirviniemi’s sketch characters.
Aku Hirviniemi and Yellow Film & TV closed down in 2023. Antti Nikkanen
Production Company Yellow Film & TV Oy is Helsinki Sanomat According to the Donald Hirviniemi sketch characters, the dispute over the European Union’s Industrial Laws (EUIPO).
According to the newspaper, Yellow Film & TV calls for the registration of Hirviniemi’s three sketch characters for the company. The question is Hirviniemi Waterfallin the series of characters from Marja Tyrn, believe Eevertti Luttinen and Timo Harjakainen. At that time, the waterfall was produced by Storyof Oy, which merged with Yellow Film and TV in 2014.
CEO of Yellow Film Lasse Koskinen tells HS that they ended up in a solution because Waterfall is a successful family program and a valuable brand. According to Koskinen, Hirviniemi is allowed to use characters with their live gigs, but audiovisual content should be agreed separately with Yellow Film.
However, Hirviniemi does not see the need for new contract negotiations. He states to the magazine by email that the company has not had any rights to his characters after the termination of the contracts, and the rights to the characters have never been handed over to the Yellow Film. The agreements were terminated at the end of 2022.
“That’s why Yellow’s attempts to register for themselves as trademarks are only teasing, which is sad,” Hirviniemi tells HS.
Yellow Film and Aku Hirviniemi’s dispute over sketch characters began in 2023, when Yellow Film registered Hirviniemi’s characters as trademarks. Helsingin Sanomat said at the time that Hirviniemi was not happy with the decision and announced his dissatisfaction with the Patent and Registration Board (NBR). Hirviniemi justified her decision, among other things, that it was her trademark.
The NBPR resolved the matter in favor of Hirviniemi and rejected the production company’s trademark registration. According to Helsingin Sanomat, the NBPR estimates that “the production company made registration applications in a fraudulent sense after the actor and the company had become an interim.”
Hirviniemi and Yellow Film & TV ended their cooperation late 2023.