Legal Question in Entertainment Law in New York

Re: Betty Boop copyright

Depending on the exact use of the name, likeness and image of this character, several legal rights may be involved, including primarily trademark and copyright (with respect to any copyrightable aspects of the character, such as any text, music or images that may be reproduced). The owner of these rights would be the one to contact with any licensing questions.

In general, however, U.S. trademark registration may be renewed indefinitely in 10-year terms (assuming it continues to identify goods or services) while copyright term is finite. Prior to 1978, copyrights were in force for the total of 75 years if properly extended. However, the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 generally extended the duration of U.S. copyrights by 20 more years. To answer your specific question more information is needed on when the original registration was effected and by whom and on all copyright assignments that may have taken place. Again, this question should be directed to the current copyright holder, but if you want to confirm that the work in question is not in public domain, feel free to contact me. There may also be a possibility of relying on the fair use exception, depending on the nature of your performance and the extent of use of the copyrighted material, but this is a risky route to take in any commercial projects.

This reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.