Peanuts music owner sues U.S. government and companies over Guaraldi songs

The company that controls the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas and other Peanuts specials has taken the dispute over Vince Guaraldi’s songs into federal court, accusing the U.S. government and three private companies of using the music without permission. Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed four lawsuits Wednesday in New York and Washington, D.C., saying the cases respond to what it called an intolerable digital glut of unfair use.

The lawsuits target the Department of the Interior, Heritage Auctions, Buckle-Down Inc. and GameMill Entertainment. In one complaint, the company says the Interior Department posted a digital holiday card on social media that used Guaraldi’s arrangement of O Tannenbaum from A Charlie Brown Christmas without a license. The department said it does not comment on litigation.

Another suit says Heritage Auctions used Linus and Lucy in Facebook and Instagram posts promoting an auction of collectibles. A third accuses Buckle-Down, a belt maker, of using Peanuts music in connection with themed products. The fourth centers on GameMill Entertainment’s 2025 video game Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, which LMFP says used music meant to evoke Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy and Skating so closely that it crossed the line from inspiration into unauthorized copying.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions, a family-owned company based in Burlingame, California, said it has stewarded the Peanuts television and film music catalog since 1963. The company was founded by and named after producer Lee Mendelson. It also said it has received 11 Emmy Awards from 45 nominations and four Peabody Awards, underscoring the scale of the legacy it is now trying to protect.

The legal fight lands at the intersection of copyright enforcement and the modern internet, where brief clips, themed promotions and reposted audio can spread fast and blur the line between licensed use and infringement. LMFP says it wants to reinforce a precedent protecting the Peanuts music legacy and creative content more broadly. The company’s claims arrive as older entertainment properties are increasingly packaged for digital audiences, often by brands and institutions that may assume nostalgia makes the material easier to use.

Guaraldi’s jazz score helped define the sound of Peanuts starting with A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired on December 9, 1965. The music, including Christmas Time Is Here and Linus and Lucy, became part of the holiday special’s identity and, decades later, remains among the most recognizable cues in American pop culture. Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the other characters, is not a party to any of the lawsuits.