AN UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR WARNER/CHAPPELL

Warner/Chappell’s goldmine, which brought the pubco decades of riches, has just caved in. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that WCM does not hold a valid copyright claim to “Happy Birthday to You,” reversing decades of copyright claims. Royalties on the song reportedly bring in about $2m a year for the company.

WCM had been enforcing its copyright claim since it paid $15m to buy Birch Tree Group, the successor to Clayton F. Summy Co., which owned the original copyright. But Judge George H. King ruled that a copyright filed by the Summy Co. in 1935 granted only the rights to specific arrangements of the music, not the actual song.

“Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the ‘Happy Birthday’ lyrics,” wrote King, “Defendants, as Summy Co.’s purported successors-in-interest, do not own a valid copyright in the ‘Happy Birthday’ lyrics.”

“‘Happy Birthday’ is finally free after 80 years,” Randall Newman, an attorney for the plaintiffs told the L.A. Times. “Finally, the charade is over. It’s unbelievable.”

The plaintiffs included a group of filmmakers who are producing a documentary about the song.