Posts Tagged: "The Big Bang Theory"

The original lawsuit filed in December 2015 targeted The Big Bang Theory’s use of the song Soft Kitty, a song which the character Sheldon Cooper asks people to sing whenever he’s sick or needs mothering. The lyrics to that song were written in the 1930s by Edith Newlin, a published children’s author and mother of the two plaintiffs listed in the case. The lyrics were published by Willis Music Company in 1937 in a compilation where the song was titled Warm Kitty. Willis renewed the copyright registration covering the collection of nursery school songs in 1964. The plaintiffs alleged that this renewal served to register and renew Newlin’s rights to the Soft Kitty lyrics. This, the plaintiffs reasoned, required Willis to request permission from Newlin or her successors to license the song to Warner Bros. Entertainment, producers of The Big Bang Theory.