Editing Three Investigators (section)

===Lawsuit===

Due to the unclear legal situation, EUROPA decided at the beginning of 2005 not to publish any further episodes based on the book templates of Kosmos Verlag and discontinued the license payments to Kosmos. At that time the books “Spur ins Nichts” and “...und der Geisterzug” (both German only) had already been recorded as a radio play.

In 2006, the parent company of the European label [[Sony Music Entertainment]] (formerly Sony BMG) finally gained all the German rights on Arthur's creations and the use of the original characters and showplaces independently from Kosmos publishing house of Robert Arthur's successors. The contract contained the right to order new books in German, as well as the right to evaluate the sound storage medium. Moreover, all were transferred: from "[...] interests [of Arthur's children] in all German audio recordings, bound books, pocketbooks, theatrical performances and electronic film recordings of theatrical performances to all existing derived products in Sony BMG". EUROPA developed a new audio book named "{{ill|DiE DR3i|de|DiE DR3i|vertical-align=sup}}" based on it. Indeed, EUROPA avoided the use of the name "Die Drei ???" and also the name created by Kosmos because of the protection of the brand. Instead of that only characters and names which were based on Arthur's ideas were used (characters’ original names).

The Kosmos publishing house continued its series of books under well-known titles and with famous character's names. The society{{which|date=September 2020}} filed a lawsuit against the Kosmos publishing house because Sony BMG itself saw its exploitation rights violated. A provisional disposal was obtained against the sale of two novels “Spuk im Netz” and “Der Fluch des Drachen” (both German only).

Because of this, the two books had to be taken off the market retroactively. This verdict was overturned by the [[Oberlandesgericht|Higher Regional Court]] in [[Düsseldorf]] on May 13, 2007. The judges were unable to identify Robert Arthur's children as the rightful owners of the copyright law. They found that the University of Michigan rightfully inherited the works of Robert Arthur and his characters, meaning that his heirs could not have transferred the rights to Sony BMG. A due date was set for the complainant of Sony BMG to submit the new chain-of-title as well as the new contracts as they were available to her. Eventually, Kosmos and Sony BMG negotiated again to come to an extrajudicial agreement, causing the delivery of Episode 7 of "DiE DR3i" to be delayed. The final release date of Episodes 7 and 8 was 30 November 2007.