Marvel seems to have decided to start the new year without old grudges, as it has come to light that the entertainment giant has settled their dispute with the estate of Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Captain America and other flagship characters that Marvel prides itself with.
In 2021, Marvel sued the estate of Steve Ditko to keep the rights of characters that appear in its Avengers lineup, including Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Black Widow and Hawkeye.
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The lawsuit was against the legacy of great Marvel creators
The suit was against the heirs of some of Marvel’s greatest and most prestigious creators, such as Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Gene Colan. The suit was a direct response to copyright termination notices that the company received from Larry Lieber, the estates of Colan, Ditko, Don Heck and Don Rico. The suit was to ensure that the billion-dollar characters were not eligible for copyright termination, meaning the estate would share the rights of the characters in perpetuity along with Marvel, which cannot move to have sole ownership of the characters.
While the House of Mouse managed to settle the dispute outside of the court, one estate still stayed in the running for the suit, that of Steve Ditko, who helped produce characters like Spider-Man and Doctor Stephen Strange. The suit with Ditko’s estate is the one that Disney has settled now, hopefully bringing an end to the entire debacle with a fair and just settlement
The Ditko settlement is hopefully the end of Marvel’s troubles
Ditko’s estate, according to their notice, was concerned with the copyright of the characters that were created by Ditko, and were now parts of a billion-dollar entertainment franchise, Marvel expected the copyright to remain with them without having to give the creator and estates a share, given that the characters were created by the artists and writers on a hire basis.
This would mean that Marvel Comics would have the sole copyright on these characters and may use them as they please, without having to compensate the creators outside of what was paid to them at the time of the creation of the characters. However, the settlement outside of court seems to have worked out in the favour of all parties concerned, finally bringing this whole debacle to an end.
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