BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — An agreement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a California production company against the Little House on the Prairie, Inc., an Independence-based organization that operates a historical attraction by the same name.

The agreement between Friendly Family Productions, LLC., and the Little House on the Prairie, Inc., was reached in November 2009 but will not be made official until early February when representatives of the two parties sign final settlement papers.

The Little House on the Prairie, Inc., is a non-profit organization that is operated by Bill Kurtis and his sister, Jean Schodorf. The organization manages the Little House on the Prairie Historic Site located between Independence and Caney.

The agreement does prohibit the parties from divulging terms of the settlement. The confidential nature of the financial operations of both Friendly Family Productions and the Little House on the Prairie, Inc., was cited as the primary reason for the protective order on the settlement terms.

Asked if the settlement would alter the way the Little House On the Prairie Historic Site is operated, Kurtis told the Montgomery County Chronicle to expect minimal changes.

“The Little House site and museum will continue with minimal change,” said Kurtis. “We’re looking very positively to the future of our educational mission at the historic site of the Little House on the Prairie.”

Friendly Family Productions, LLC., which owns the trademark rights to the Little House On the Prairie name, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles in 2008. The company alleges that the Little House on the Prairie, Inc., had been illegally selling Little House merchandise at the Montgomery County site since its opening in 1977. The Little House On the Prairie, Inc., had established a website by a similar name (www.littlehouseontheprairie.com) as way to promote the Montgomery County site and area tourism.

The website also was used to sell Little House merchandise with an unlicensed Little House On the Prairie logo ascribed on T-shirts, ball caps, collector spoons, thimbles, magnets, key chains, notecards and other souvenirs, the California-based production alleges.

Friendly Family Production says in its complaint that in contrast, that other tourism sites promoting the Laura Ingalls Wilder novels of “Little House” fame, do not infringe on the Little House on the Prairie trademark. The complaint specifically mentions a tourism site in Walnut Grove, Minn., which promotes the memory of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was the author of the “Little House on the Prairie” novel and all subsequent children’s novels of the same genre.

Kurtis and Schodorf denied the allegations made by Friendly Family Productions.

“To the extent a responsive pleading is deemed to be required, the Little House On the Prairie, Inc., denies encroaching on any legally cognizable rights of plaintiff and further denies that an injunction would be appropriate or proper,” Kurtis and Schodorf claimed in their official response to Friendly Family Productions’ complaint.