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29 September 2014Copyright

Marvel settles with artist over comic-book characters

Disney-owned comic book producer Marvel Entertainment has settled a copyright dispute with the estate of the artist who helped to create characters including the Incredible Hulk and X-Men.

In a joint statement, Marvel and the heirs to artist Jack Kirby’s estate said they had “amicably resolved their legal disputes”.

The case, which has been running since 2009, was due to be discussed by the US Supreme Court, which had yet to make a decision on whether to hear the dispute.

Kirby’s family asked the court to review the case in March this year after both a district and appeals court sided with Marvel.

The dispute started in 2009 when Kirby’s children sent notices to Marvel to terminate licence renewals for characters that were featured in comics published from 1958 to 1963.

Marvel sued the family at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2010, where it claimed that the termination notices were invalid.

The entertainment company said Kirby granted it the rights to the characters in 1972 and that his children waited too long to make the claims.

The family said their father was a paid-by-the-page freelance artist who received no benefits from Marvel, and sought to terminate his grant of copyright to Marvel for more than 250 works published over a five-year span.

Marvel argued that Kirby had performed the work “for hire” for Marvel and one of its editors Stan Lee.  It said copyright assignments to work "for hire" cannot be terminated under the 1976 Copyright Act.

Kirby said the law in the late 1950s and early 1960s meant "for hire" could only apply to traditional employees and not to freelancers, which he was at that time.

But, on Friday (September 26) Marvel and the Kirby family announced they had resolved the dispute.

“Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby have amicably resolved their legal disputes, and are looking forward to advancing their shared goal of honouring Mr Kirby’s significant role in Marvel’s history,” a joint statement read.

Other characters that Kirby produced included The Fantastic Four and Thor.

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28 October 2021   Following a wave of lawsuits from ex-Marvel writers and artists attempting to win back copyrights of some of the company’s flagship characters, Disney retaliated with suits of its own in September, asking courts to invalidate their termination notices.