Business Notes COPYRIGHTS

FOR SALE: classic ditty; owned by the same family for 53 years; original condition; used only on special occasions.

Yes, the song Happy Birthday to You! is on the block. While the tune may seem like public property, it is one of some 50,000 copyrighted songs owned by the Birch Tree Group music-publishing company of Princeton, N.J. The company's longtime owners, the Sengstack family, are putting it up for sale at an asking price of at least $12 million.

Two Kentucky kindergarten teachers, Mildred and Patty Hill, published Happy Birthday in 1893 as Good Morning to All and later added the familiar lyrics. The song was copyrighted in 1935 and earns $1 million a year in royalties. Japan's Casio Computer company, for instance, pays a 1 cents fee for each of the digital watches that it programs to play the tune. The song will earn royalties until 2010, when it will pass into the public domain.