Moscow court orders McDonald’s to pay local man 200,000 rubles for using a poem in a commercial

A Moscow court has ordered the McDonald’s food chain to pay a local man 200,000 rubles (about $3,000) for using poet and translator Adelina Adalis’ Russian translation of a poem by the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore. 

The man suing the fast food chain is Alalis’ grandson, Ivan Sergeev, who says he owns the rights to his grandmother’s work. He says McDonald’s used part of her translation of a poem by Tagore in one of its TV advertisements without his permission. (Sergeev also tried to sue the television networks that aired the commercial, but the court rejected this suit.)

Sergeev initially asked the court to award him 35 million rubles ($530,000), but he later lower his request to 5 million rubles ($75,600). Sergeev’s lawyers say he plans to appeal the decision to award him only 200,000 rubles. (It’s unknown if McDonald’s plans to appeal the ruling, too.)

McDonald’s legal representatives say Ivan Sergeev failed to prove his ownership of the rights to Alalis’ translation when the company was producing its advertisement. When the commercial was being made, the food chain says, it was believed that Alalis’ daughter was the sole heir to the poet and translator’s estate.