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1992 Agreement Bars Recapture of Superman Copyrights
In a decision that helps pave the way for Warner Brothers Entertainment and its DC Comics subsidiary to maintain their grip on the Superman franchise, District Judge Otis Wright II of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected a bid by the estate of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster to reclaim partial control over the iconic superhero. In an 18-page summary judgment ruling, District Judge Wright concluded that, in a broad settlement with DC Comics in 1992, the family had given away its rights to terminate Shuster's copyrights. DC Comics v. Pacific Pictures Corp., 10-3633.
The Superman litigation has been long and nasty, and it isn't over yet. Since Shuster and his partner Jerry Siegel created Superman in 1938. If Wright had ruled against Warner Brothers on the Shuster estate's termination rights claim, the copyrights at issue would have been subject to termination by the family in 2013, at a time when the studio is planning to distribute its next big-budget Superman film, Man of Steel (currently slated to open June 14). With Judge Wright's ruling, Warner Brothers' franchise is safe for the moment.
In his decision, Judge Wright ruled for DC Comics on two of its six claims in the case, finding that the company's 1992 agreement with Shuster's sister, then the executor of Shuster's estate, barred the family's 2010 bid to reclaim the Superman copyrights. Wright found that “the broad and all-encompassing language of the 1992 Agreement unmistakably operates to supersede all prior grants.”
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