Judge finds "Happy Birthday To You" is NOT copyrighted

[TheFugitive]

A Federal judge has ruled that all prior claims to hold a copyright on the song
Happy Birthday To You! are without merit and, thus, invalid.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-happy-birthday-song-lawsuit-decision-20150922-story.html

You have probably noticed that in movies and TV shows this song is rarely sung during birthday party scenes.  It is replaced with some other original song or He's A Jolly Good Fellow.  The reason being that royalties were actually being collected on the song.

That will apparently no longer be the case.  This also explains why those chain restaurants all made up their own birthday song to sing when they force the staff to gather at the table of a customer having a birthday.