It was in May 2019 that Berlingske published a cartoon-like drawing of the sculpture The Little Mermaid on the front page.
The figure in the drawing had the same pose as the sculpture, but also a zombie-like face with red eyes and held a worn Danish flag against a background of barbed wire.
The drawing was an appetizer to an article about Danish debate culture inside the newspaper.
Heirs to the visual artist Edvard Eriksen, who created The Little Mermaid, considered the drawing to be a violation of copyright and sued Berlingske.
The Supreme Court agrees with the heirs, copyright is violated.
The court considers that there is "such a similarity" between the mermaid figure of the drawing and the sculpture itself, that the artist has not only been inspired but has copied.
Berlingske's editor-in-chief Tom Jensen states that he is very surprised by the verdict.
"In our opinion, this is not an infringement of copyright, but the media's free right to refer to a national symbol, such as The Little Mermaid, in a purely editorial context such as this," Tom Jensen commented on the ruling.
Berlingske must pay DKK 300,000 to the heirs and DKK 358,280 for legal costs.
The heirs' copyright to The Little Mermaid expires on January 12, 2029, 70 years after the artist's death.