<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The owner of the music of \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d<\/a> and other \u201cPeanuts\u201d<\/a> television specials filed four lawsuits Wednesday against defendants including the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a>, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a video game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed the suits in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The defendants also include a video game company, an auction house and a belt-maker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One lawsuit argues the Interior Department did not have permission to use Guaraldi\u2019s arrangement of \u201cO Tannenbaum\u201d from \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d in a digital holiday card posted to social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The department said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not comment on litigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another lawsuit alleges Heritage Auctions illegally used \u201cLinus and Lucy\u201d \u2014 the beloved non-Christmas song the kids dance to in \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d that has become the de facto \u201cPeanuts\u201d theme \u2014 in posts on Facebook<\/a> and Instagram promoting an auction of collectibles. Similar claims of social media misuse come in another suit against Buckle-Down Inc., a belt company that makes \u201cPeanuts\u201d themed products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Christina Rees, a representative of Heritage Auctions, said in an email, \u201cAt this time, Heritage has not been served with or reviewed the complaint. If and when we receive it, we will review the allegations and respond as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Email messages seeking comments from the other defendants were not immediately answered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lee Mendelson Film Productions of Burlingame, California, was founded by and is named for the producer who collaborated with \u201cPeanuts\u201d creator Charles Schulz and director Bill Melendez to create the TV specials based on Schulz\u2019s comic strip, starting with 1965\u2032s \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas.\u201d Mendelson, who died in 2019, hired the jazz pianist Guaraldi to provide the mellow, often melancholy music, including \u201cChristmas Time Is Here\u201d and \u201cLinus and Lucy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The company decided to take the sweeping action after what they said was becoming an intolerable digital glut of unfair use of the music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Attorney Marc Jacobson said in a statement that Lee Mendelson Film Productions \u201cwill no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.\u201d He said \u201cthe rights of creators and the protection of iconic cultural assets must be vigorously enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown<\/a>, Snoopy<\/a> and the other characters, is not a party in any of the lawsuits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The fourth suit alleges video game publisher GameMill Entertainment, in its 2025 \u201cPeanuts\u201d video game Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, violated copyright by using new music compositions meant to invoke Guaraldi\u2019s pieces including \u201cLinus and Lucy\u201d and \u201cSkating.\u201d The plaintiffs said no permission was sought for the music, and the copycat versions are too close to the originals not to require it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lee Mendelson Film Productions is seeking varying financial damages from the different defendants, including at least $300,000 from GameMill. And in every case, the plaintiff is seeking a judge\u2019s injunction that the alleged copyright violations immediately stop and not be repeated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The owner of the music of \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d and other \u201cPeanuts\u201d television specials filed four lawsuits Wednesday against defendants including the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a video game. Lee Mendelson Film Productions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2427164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22804,475913,475911,382448,22491,475910,475912,22693,475914],"class_list":["post-2427163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-associated-press","tag-buckle-down-inc","tag-christina-rees","tag-heritage-auctions","tag-instagram","tag-interior-department","tag-lee-mendelson-film-productions","tag-los-angeles","tag-u-s-department-interior"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Peanuts-Music-Rights-Owner-Takes-Legal-Action.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427165,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427163\/revisions\/2427165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2427164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}