History
In September 1930, Béla Lugosi and Universal Pictures Company, Inc. had entered into an agreement for the production of the film Dracula in which Lugosi played the title role under a signed contract. Hope Linninger Lugosi, his widow, and Bela George Lugosi, his son, filed a complaint against Universal on February 3, 1966, alleging that they were the heirs of Béla Lugosi and that Universal had, commencing in 1960, appropriated and continued to appropriate property which they had inherited from Lugosi and which was not part of the agreement with Universal. The Lugosis asserted that from 1960 until the present time, Universal entered into many licensing agreements which authorized the licensees to use the Count Dracula character.
" seek to recover the profits made by in its licensing of the use of the Count Dracula character to commercial firms and to enjoin from making any additional grants, without consent .... The action, therefore, raises the question of whether Béla Lugosi had granted to in his contracts with merchandising rights in his movie portrayal of Count Dracula, the nature of such rights, and whether any such rights, if retained by Béla Lugosi, descended to the ...."
Read more about this topic: Lugosi V. Universal Pictures
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