Marvel has officially begun the latest copyright battle for beloved characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, and more.
Recently, the thought of Marvel and a courtroom seems to be recurring quite often. The Marvel subsidiary behind The Avengers and many other superheroes is returning to court soon, after actress Scarlett Johansson filed a paradigm-shifting lawsuit against the studio over Black Widow’s release strategy.
In a bid to maintain full ownership over its most popular characters, Marvel has filed multiple lawsuits against various Marvel comics figures, including the heirs of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. An application for declaratory relief against Marvel comics writer Larry Lieber (Stan Lee’s younger brother who co-created Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man) was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Here’s how it works. First, heirs of creators are permitted to do this under the Copyright Act of 1976. In certain circumstances, such as for comic books, a properly executed notice can terminate the grant of a license or the transfer. The IRS followed this process. Marvel has already retaliated and they actually filed a lawsuit on Friday against the heirs and family members of these creators.
You shouldn’t be concerned about it, and here’s why. One case that illustrates this type of lawsuit was Jack Kirby’s heirs claiming copyright to the X-Men, Thor, and Iron Man, but the federal court sided with Marvel and said that because the characters were created under work for hire agreements, the heirs have no claim to the copyright. Marvel claimed that these characters were specifically created for them while they were being hired by Marvel and working for Marvel, so Marvel owns the rights to them.
I’m not sure what to make of all of this. I know it won’t be the first time. Please let me ease your mind. Basically, all of these family members that worked on these characters have filed notices of termination, they have filed these notices for their personal work. As a result of this, Marvel has been told to stop using these characters and your movies after this time. The characters can no longer be used in comic books or movies since we own the rights to them. Patrick Ditko, Steve Ditko’s brother, filed a notice of termination and said, in reference to Spider-Man, that Marvel has until the end of June 2023. It is at this point that they are no longer able to use Spider-Man, and of course, this is when people start getting really, really worried. It sounds really scary. Marvel has dealt with these creators before and their heirs have attempted this in the past with little success.
Here’s how it works. First, heirs of creators are permitted to do this under the Copyright Act of 1976. In certain circumstances, such as for comic books, a properly executed notice can terminate the grant of a license or the transfer. The IRS followed this process. Marvel has already retaliated and they actually filed a lawsuit on Friday against the heirs and family members of these creators.
You shouldn’t be concerned about it, and here’s why. One case that illustrates this type of lawsuit was Jack Kirby’s heirs claiming copyright to the X-Men, Thor, and Iron Man, but the federal court sided with Marvel and said that because the characters were created under work for hire agreements, the heirs have no claim to the copyright. Marvel claimed that these characters were specifically created for them while they were being hired by Marvel and working for Marvel, so Marvel owns the rights to them.
Daniel Petra Kelly, a Marvel lawyer, said the same. It’s basically the same situation, family members are suing for character rights that they don’t actually possess. As a result, we’re not too concerned about this. In the past, Marvel went through exactly the same thing and came out on top. It’s a pretty straightforward case. That’s exactly how it is right now. The court sided with the people before, and they can actually bring that up as a case argument. It’s just more family members coming forward to talk about different characters. Fortunately for Marvel, and for us, fans, the law is on our side, so we don’t have to worry about the heirs or family members taking away any characters for any reason. Because the law is the same, they should win again no problem, meaning they cannot terminate the use of any characters.
