Last week, Marvel and Disney received some negative publicity when it was revealed the companies were filing lawsuits against the estates of some legendary figures in the comic book industry, a list that also included Stan Lee’s family.
The heirs of Lee, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan and more were hit with legal claims as a pre-emptive measure to prevent them seeking notices of copyright termination, meaning that the rights to some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest names would revert to the original creators and not the company who employed them at the time.
It was huge news, but nobody was really expecting the might of the Mouse House to come up short in the courtroom. A new report from Geekosity offers that there’s really nothing to worry about on Marvel and Disney’s part, with the initial filing by the Ditko estate seeking nothing more than a payout from the multi-billion corporation.
That’s understandable, especially when many comic book writers and artists have been kicking up a stink over the low remuneration doled out for their superheroes being the stars of mega budget blockbusters known the world over, so the most likely scenario is Disney putting its hands into those incredibly deep pockets to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. At least, until the next bout of copyright notices start to reach their expiration date.
