Yesterday afternoon, The New York Times and the Los Angles Times both reported that in the wake of the recent $4 Billion dollar acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company, the heirs of Jack Kirby, have filed 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Sony Pictures (which owns movie rights to Spider-Man), 20th Century Fox (owner of movie rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men), Paramount Pictures (which has a film distribution deal for four upcoming Marvel-produced films) and Universal Pictures (which has distribution rights to Hulk movies) and others who have been making films and other forms of entertainment based on the characters.

Apparently the legal notices expressed an intent to regain copyrights to some creations as early as 2014, according to a statement from Toberoff & Associates,being the firm that helped win a court ruling last year returning a share of the copyright in Superman to heirs of the character’s co-creator, Jerome Siegel.

Neither the lawyers involved with the case, nor representative from Marvel, Fox, Sony, Paramount, or Universal have yet commented on the statement, but a representative from Disney made a statement saying, “The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.”

Marvel properties that could be affected by this case include such Kirby creations as Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Eternals, The Black Panther, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, and many more…

The window for serving notice of termination on the oldest of the properties opened several years ago, and will remain open for some time under the law. However, with Disney valuing Marvel’s assets at $4 Billion, it has given new incentive for people with a potential claim to try to stake a claim to these lucrative characters.

Jack Kirby passed away in 1994, and was survived by four children. If their claim is successful, the Kirby’s children would be eligible to claim their father’s share of the copyright of the Fantastic Four in 2017, while the Hulk would come up in 2018 and X-Men in 2019. The copyrights would then run for 39 more years before expiring, after which the characters would enter the public domain under current law. Should their claims stand, the Kirby children could choose to assign their portion of the rights to current copyright holders for a fee or sell them to a new licensee. An action that could possibly benefit Disney if the Kirby children were to take movie rights to Spider-Man or the X-Men, currently held in perpetuity by Sony and Fox, respectively, and sell them to Disney.

An official statement from Marvel Entertainment is expected shortly.

Related posts:

1. Kirby Heirs’ Attorney Responds to Marvel’s Countersuit Back in September, we reported that the heirs of Jack...
2. Marvel Countersues Kirby Heirs to Invalidate Their Copyright Claims Back in September, we reported that the heirs of Jack...
3. Mandalay Pictures Picks up the Rights to Mark Sable’s Unthinkable BOOM! Studios have informed Hypergeek that Mandalay Pictures have picked...
4. Lionsgate Acquires the U.S. And Canadian Rights to Kick-Ass Movie Canadian film company Lionsgate Entertainment have just put out a...
5. Thor Release Date Pushed Forward to May 6th, 2011 According to Variety.com, due to delays in the production of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.