William, I think the Tolkien Estate will get their proper dues, it's just the American legal system is tremendously slow. Plus there are several sales of rights to wade through. United Artists, Zaentz and others broke apart the rights and sold different parts to different places. One company has merchandise rights, MGM and NL were in a battle over who had The Hobbit film rights, supposedly NL has the 7.5% gross receipt clause that is owed to the Estate, but NL was trying to claim they only leasers, and Saul Zaentz should be responsible for the 7.5%. Which is ridiculous, and NL has shown this "creative accounting" before, with the actors and Jackson's lawsuits.
This was all a while ago, so I may have fallen behind, but the U.S. legal system is molasses, and now that NL is absorbed, the execs in charge are gone, who knows what the Tolkien Estate can do? It would be great if anyone had updated info about the lawsuit.
