In that case, Disney could lose the copyright ownership of several characters by 2023 - or shortly thereafter.Īttorney Marc Toberoff is representing all of the creators and their estates in the current lawsuit, and he has a history of doing so with similar cases in the past. So while there is precedent for this type of work being considered work-for-hire, there's still a grey area and Disney could lose if a new court doesn't fall in line with the previous Kirby case.
Interestingly, the last lawsuit of this ilk, in which Jack Kirby's estate sued Disney over the copyrights for X-Men, Spider-Man, and so on, a federal court ruled that Kirby's work constituted as work-for-hire, but then in 2014, the case went to the Supreme Court, and Disney quickly settled out of court. Instead, they argue that this work was done under work-for-hire contracts, which would mean Marvel is actually the original owner of these characters.
Related: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked Worst To Best (Including Shang-Chi)ĭisney is fighting to retain copyright ownership of these characters and has filed countersuits in response, claiming that the 1976 act does not apply in these cases.
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