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		"Oh, bother," said Pooh, "copyrights."

Stephen Slesinger Inc, which acquired the U.S. rights to Pooh from British author A.A. Milne in 1930, said Disney was reading the law incorrectly and that Disney could lose the rights to Pooh as well as $1 billion in damages from separate, still-pending litigation.

Disney and Clare Milne, granddaughter of the Pooh author, asked the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to affirm Milne's right to reclaim the copyright to Pooh.

Disney revenue related to Pooh is estimated at about $1 billion annually.

A 1998 U.S. law extended copyright for 20 years and gave heirs of authors some ability to take back copyright for the extension period. On that basis, Milne told Slesinger she had terminated the company's rights to Pooh.

"Milne and Disney seek a declaration that the termination notices are valid and that the Slesinger rights in the United States will terminate effective Nov. 5, 2004," Milne and Disney said in their suit.

A Disney spokesman declined to say how soon the issue would be resolved, and lawyers for Florida-based Slesinger said their original copyright period had not lapsed.

"This sneak attack is just their latest tactic to avoid facing the fact that they may be out up to $1 billion in back royalties and the loss of Winnie the Pooh rights," Slesinger attorney Bert Fields said in a statement.

Slesinger is controlled by the family of the late literary agent of the same name. Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, 79, and her daughter turned over rights to Pooh to Disney but say the entertainment giant has cheated them out of past royalties.

Disney has said it could be liable for up to $200 million under the decade-old suit launched by Slesinger although it had also said that it expects to win and pay nothing.

Milne, expecting to reclaim the copyright, has agreed to lease worldwide Pooh rights to Disney beginning in November 2004, Disney said, a move that would squeeze Slesinger out of the picture altogether.

Disney said Minette Hunt, granddaughter of original Winnie the Pooh illustrator E. H. Shepard, was seeking in conjunction with Milne to wrest control of merchandising rights from Slesinger, although the Hunt family's lawyers in London declined to comment.

Slesinger, for its part, seeks to wrest back control of Pooh from Disney. The new tactic "enormously strengthens Slesinger's claim that it can terminate Disney's rights," attorney Fields said.

Pooh was born in the late 1920s when A. A. Milne, a former British army officer who served in World War One, found inspiration in the stuffed toys of his son Christopher Robin.

As well as Pooh, he created a menagerie of other characters including Pooh's diminutive best friend Piglet, Eeyore the melancholy donkey and Tigger, a hyperactive tiger.

Milne's books have been a staple for British children for generations and have found a world audience thanks in large part to Disney's blockbuster Winnie the Pooh films.