Stewart v. Abend

Cornell Woolrich wrote the story that became the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window, assigning movie rights and agreeing to renew and reassign the copyright in the renewal term; Woolrich died before the renewal period began, and a corporate trustee for his estate later renewed the copyright and assigned the renewal rights to Sheldon Abend (plaintiff). When Rear Window (owned by Jimmy Stewart and other defendants through their production company) was re-released and relicensed to television during the renewal term, Abend sued for copyright infringement, eventually litigating whether new permission was required to keep distributing the derivative work.