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Talk of the bay
By Times Staff Writer
Published April 10, 2007
POOH DISPUTE WASN'T SETTLED, ONLY HIBERNATING The long-running royalty dispute between a former Tampa family business and Walt Disney Co. over the Winnie the Pooh characters was supposed to be over. Wrong. Settlement talks have ended and years of federal copyright litigation will continue anew. Disney generates about $1-billion in annual revenue from selling Pooh products. Attorneys representing Stephen Slesinger Inc., the company that owns the rights to Pooh, said they would pursue federal action against Disney, including asking for $2-billion in damages. Disney lawyers told a federal judge last month that it would not participate in settlement talks with the family. The wife of the late Stephen Slesinger, Tampa's Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, in 1961 struck a deal with Disney, which used its marketing power to turn the Pooh franchise into a huge money maker. Lasswell sued in 1991 to get a bigger share of revenue. Several years ago, she moved from Tampa to California to be closer to her daughter, Patricia Slesinger. Universal's ties to clinic are cut About 700 members of Universal Health Care's Medicare Masterpiece plan are going to have to search for a new doctor now that the St. Petersburg insurer's contract with 75 doctors at Largo's Diagnostic Clinic has been terminated. The contract between the two parties officially expired on March 20, but Dr. Charles Campbell, president of Diagnostic Clinic, said Universal was negotiating until after March 31, the deadline for members to change Medicare plans. "Then they stopped returning our phone calls," said Campbell, who said Universal still owes the clinic more than $250,000 for services rendered. A spokesman for Universal said members are being automatically assigned a new doctor, though pickings in mid-Pinellas County may be slim. At the end of 2006, Universal also lost its contract with the 70 doctors in Morton Plant Mease Primary Care group. Future in focus for Tampa ophthalmic A Tampa-based ophthalmic focused bio-pharmaceutical company scored five new institutional investors and $45-million in new private-equity financing. Sirion Therapeutics Inc. has four prescription eye products in various development stages. The company's latest equity financing is led by New York-based Aisling Capital.
[Last modified April 10, 2007, 12:01:40]
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