Decision of Note: <B>Writer is Co-Owner Of Rights in 'Spawn' Character</B>

Gaiman began writing for Todd McFarlane under an oral agreement in 1992. Gaiman then created, named or described, and wrote the dialogue for three new characters ' Medieval Spawn, Angela and Count Nicholas Cogliostro ' that McFarlane illustrated. Gaiman filed suit in January 2002 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin for, among other things, a joint ownership declaration. A jury ruled in favor of Gaiman and the district judge entered a judgment that Gaiman indeed was co-owner of the character copyrights.

McFarlane had argued that Gaiman's suit was barred by the three-year statute of limitations of Sec. 507(b) of the Copyright Act. McFarlane contended that Gaiman should have known since 1993, when “Spawn No. 9,” in which the characters first appeared, was published with a copyright notice of McFarlane's ownership of the compilation in the comic book. But the appeals court noted that a compiler's copyright notice isn't adverse to a contributor's copyright and thus doesn't place a contributor on notice of a copyright claim. That McFarlane had also published paperback books in which he claimed the copyrights in all related characters didn't place Gaiman on notice because, the appeals court noted, there is no obligation for authors to read the copyright notices of works in which their materials appear. Also, McFarlane's registration of the comics and books didn't give Gaiman constructive notice considering, the appeals court noted, that authors “don't consult the records of the Copyright Office to see whether someone has asserted copyright in their works.”