Works for Hire, Copyright Terminations and Marvel
I have been asked about the following topic several times this week, so I will address it briefly on the blog:
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the dispute between Marvel Entertainment and the heirs of Jack Kirby, Kirby is the creator of several well-known comic book characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk. These characters are extremely valuable, especially given the many movies, games, comics and other properties related to them.
Kirby’s heirs have sought to reclaim the rights to those characters by distributing copyright transfer-license termination notices to entities developing works based upon those characters. This termination procedure is described in 17 U.S.C. § 203, which allows an author, and certain other interested parties, to terminate – after, and within, a certain period of time – a grant or license of a copyright, so long as the work is not a work for hire. This termination right cannot be waived by contract.
Marvel filed a lawsuit against the heirs earlier this month, requesting that the court invalidate the termination notices, and declare Marvel to be the rightful owner of those characters. [Article]
It will be interesting to see how this matter is resolved, and whether those characters will be deemed works for hire in light of the well-publicized relationship between Marvel and Kirby. In the meantime, this serves as an important reminder to all business owners to establish the ownership rights of their business’ intellectual properties (e.g., trademarks, copyrights, logos, websites, etc.), especially when relying upon outside parties to develop those properties.
