Marvel is suing copyright termination to keep the rights to some of their most popular heroes
Disney’s Marvel unit is suing the copyright termination requested by the estates of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Gene Colan, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Among these are heroes such as Spider-Man, Ironman, Thor, Dr. Strange, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Falcon and more. Losing the suit, Disney and Marvel would no longer have the right to use these characters in any of their comics, TV or movies.
Just last month, the Ditko estate filed a notice of termination for Spider-Man in an attempt to reclaim the rights to the web-headed hero. Granted that the character first appeared in comics in 1962, according to copyright law, after a set amount of time the creators can reclaim the rights to the character. Depending on the outcome of the case, Marvel could lose the rights to Spider-Man in June 2022.
Marvel is multiple termination notices, one from Larry Lieber, Stan Lee’s younger brother and co-creator of Ironman, Thor and Ant-Man, filed in May.
Similar instances have occurred previously, such as the Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster estates attempting to reclaim ownership of Superman from DC comics, but ultimately proved unsuccessful.
In addition, Jack Kirby’s heirs attempted to reclaim the rights to The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Ironman and more, also failing. In 2013, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kirby created his heroes for Marvel as “a work made for hire,” meaning that most of his creations originated from projects assigned by Marvel and that the company had the ability to reject or edit the pages he submitted. Marvel is arguing that this is a similar instance and that the heroes involved in the copyright termination are also a work made for hire.
In the case that Marvel loses, Disney would lose full ownership of their flagship Marvel characters, undoubtedly throwing a wrench in their plans for phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the termination rights only apply to the US, which would allow Disney to maintain control of these characters everywhere else in the world.
