It’s Finally Official: “Happy Birthday” Will Be in the Public Domain

If you’ve been following the strange saga of “Happy Birthday,” you’ll know that it’s been a bizarre tug-of-war involving music publisher Warner-Chappell and the rules governing the move of once-copyrighted material into the public domain.

Now, though, we seemed to have reached a resolution that should allow for the banishment of the singing of made-up birthday songs by restaurant staff. From Music Business Worldwide.

In November, a US charity called the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) filed a motion to intervene in the case.

It claimed that the song’s original author, Patty Hill, and her sister, Jessica Hill – co-founders of  had directly assigned rights to Summy Co – which would make Warner/Chappell the song’s rightful controller.

There will, however, be no appeal, or trial investigating ACEI’s claims, because Warner/Chappell has chosen to settle.

A spokesperson for the publisher told MBW: “While we respectfully disagreed with the Court’s decision, we are pleased to have now resolved this matter.”

The entire story can be found here.