In a four-day bench trial in Los Angeles, Judge Manuel Real made the final decision and gave his verdict on November 24, 1976, affirming that the "King Kong" novelization and serialization were indeed in the public domain, and Universal could make its movie as long as it did not infringe on original elements in the 1933 RKO film, which had "not" passed into the public domain (Universal postponed their plans to film a King Kong movie, called "The Legend of King Kong", for at least 18 months, after cutting a deal with Dino De Laurentiis that included a percentage of box office profits from his remake).