Happy Birthday to Patty

The news is full of the revelation that a US judge has ruled Warner/Chappell, which has been collecting royalties on commercial uses of the song Happy Birthday to You at the rate of $2m a year, is not entitled to it since the rights it acquired in 1988 included only the music and certain piano arrangements. They’ve recovered their $25m investment already, so it is difficult to feel too much pain at the ruling. But it does illustrate the complexity of copyright in works that in today’s fast-moving world feel so old they surely cannot still belong to anyone… 

Sadly, copyright does not move fast at all. The song was written by two American sisters, Mildred and Patty Hill, in or around 1893. Patty was only 25 at the time, and outlived her older sister by some 30 years, dying in May 1946. When she died, copyright was set to expire in 1996 i.e. 50 years after her death, but in 1995 new legislation extended that period. Under current rules, a work of joint authorship remains protected by copyright in the United Kingdom for 70 years from the death of the last author to die. So as a work of joint authorship, that famous song would remain protected by copyright until 25 May 2016. 

But was it a work of joint authorship? It seems not: rather than both sisters contributing to both components, Mildred wrote the tune, while Patty wrote the lyrics. Thus there are two separate copyright works in the song: the music, copyright in which has expired at least 30 years ago, and the lyrics, which remain protected for a few more months. 

In a final twist, the lyrics we now sing are not the ones Patty wrote at all. Her version was called Good morning to all. It is unclear who wrote the familiar lyrics, though as they were published in 1912 they cannot have followed long after the original. If it was Patty, then they also remain in copyright until next May. But if it was someone else, then it depends when that unknown author died. 

So maybe Happy Birthday to them, then.