Avengers and X-Men to stay with Marvel

By: Rene Dial

 

With the extreme popularity of X-Men, Iron Man, and the Avengers you know there is going to be a suit somewhere by someone.

This fight started around September of 2009 when Jack Kirby’s four children served Notices of Termination of all copyright grants to Marvel.  Paragraph 14 of the complaint below lists some of the comic book heavy weights that Kirby’s children want back control of.  With the recent success of the X-Men prequel, Iron Man, and the Avengers who would not want control of them.

Jack Kirby passed away in 1994 and it was not till September of 2009 that Kirby’s children attempted to terminate the grants of copyrights.  Of course we can say that it is the success of the movies adapted from the comics that was the catalyst for this suit.  Marvel decided to bring the fight to the Kirbys by filing a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment on January 8, 2010.  The Complaint alleged that any contribution from Jack Kirby was a work for hire and that the termination provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act do not apply.  A full copy of the Complaint can be found at docs.justia.com.

According to The WallStreetJournal.com on Thursday July 29, 2011 a federal court judge ruled that the copyrights were a work for hire as Jack Kirby signed a document acknowledging that he had created works as works for hire back in June of 1972.

Of course the Kirby children are sticking to their guns and plan on appealing the verdict.  Something tells me that it is going to take a superhero to come to the rescue of the Kirbys.  With documents that Mr. Kirby executed attesting that the creations were works for hire and the fact that he never contested ownership of the copyrights when he was alive. The Kirbys’ claims seem doomed.  But hey crazier things have happened!