“This is like the Superman case times five,” said Mr. Marvel CharactersĪnd the four Kirby heirs (Lisa, Neal, Barbara and Susan) could acquire a nonexclusive right to initiate new projects based on characters partially created by their father, as long as they accounted to Marvel for its share in any of them. Kirby’s work are coming: Marvel is spending hundreds of millions to bring Thor and the Avengers to theaters.Ī fight for fame and power: it's all in a 1966 comic of the Fantastic Four, a Jack Kirby creation. Universal Studios holds theme park rights to Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk.
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Sony holds long-term movie rights to Spider-Man 20th Century Fox has the equivalent for the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Toberoff’s rights-reclamation effort against Marvel involves dozens of stories and characters from about 240 comic books.Ĭomplicating matters are licensing agreements Marvel has made over the years with rival studios for characters Mr. Unlike his continuing fight with Warner Brothers over Superman, Mr.
Toberoff is tackling what could be one of the most significant rights cases in Hollywood history it’s certainly the biggest involving a superhero franchise. A new wave of copyright termination actions is expected to affect the film, music and book industries as more works reach the 56-year threshold for ending older copyrights, or a shorter period for those created under a law that took effect in 1978. Goldstein said cases like the one involving Marvel are only the tip of an iceberg. “Any young lawyer starting out today could turn what he’s doing into a real profit center,” Paul Goldstein, who teaches intellectual-property law at Stanford’s law school, said of Mr.
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So-called branded entertainment - anything based on superheroes, comic strips, TV cartoons or classic toys - may be easier to sell to audiences, but the intellectual property may also ultimately belong in full or in part to others. Toberoff’s view, have made themselves vulnerable by building franchises atop old creations. The dispute is also emblematic of a much larger conflict between intellectual property lawyers and media companies that, in Mr. Toberoff, as he sipped hot chocolate in the lounge of the Peninsula Hotel here last month. “The family has nothing to show for all of this,” said Mr. Pow! Wham! Another high-profile copyright fight broke out in Hollywood, and this one could be the broadest the industry has yet seen. Toberoff - who helped win a court ruling last year returning a share of Superman profits to heirs of one of that character’s creators - sprang into action. They spent years preparing for a lawsuit by enlisting a Los Angeles copyright lawyer, Marc Toberoff, to represent them. Kirby’s children had long harbored resentments about Marvel, believing they had been denied a share of the lush profits rolling out of the company’s superheroes franchises. The heirs of Jack Kirby, the legendary artist who co-created numerous Marvel mainstays, were also intrigued by the deal. WHEN the Walt Disney Company agreed in August to pay $4 billion to acquire Marvel Entertainment, the comic book publisher and movie studio, it snared a company with a library that includes some of the world’s best-known superheroes, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four.