Captain America lawsuit

[Guest Sassquatch]

I love Joe but I must say that I am happy with this decision as it FINALLY puts to rest all of the Cap rumors...

 

From comicon.com

 

"In a decision handed down Monday in New York District Court, Judge Richard Conway Casey has ruled in favor of Marvel in the legal battle over Captain America’s copyright waged by Joe Simon. This is the latest, and apparently final action in Simon’s quest to regain the copyright to Captain America, which he claims, he created in 1940.

 

Last year, Marvel sought a declaratory judgment against Simon, claiming that the notices filed by Simon to regain the copyright to Captain America were invalid and had no legal force, and Marvel has been and is the sole owner of the Captain America copyright.

 

In response, Simon asserted a counterclaim, seeking a declaration that the Notices are valid, that he is the author of the copyrighted works and that the copyrights revert to him on the effective date of the Notices. After the parties conducted discovery, Marvel moved for summary judgment. Amici curiae filed a brief in support of Simon's opposition, as was detailed by Newsarama last year.

 

The decision in part, reads:

 

“…on December 7, 1999, Simon filed notices with the United States Copyright Office under Section 304© of the Copyright Act of 1976, purporting to terminate the transfers of the copyrights as of December 7, 2001. In the Notices, Simon claimed that he independently created the Captain America character and that he was "neither an employee for hire nor a creator of a work for hire." Marvel commenced this action in February 2000 and after discovery, filed for summary judgment.

 

In his papers, Simon alleges that he created the Captain America character independently and then, in 1940, shopped his character and a plot outline to Timely. He states that, in exchange for publishing an entire comic book featuring the Captain America character, Martin Goodman agreed to pay Simon a page rate of $12 for the book and 25 percent of the profits. He alleges further that: he created the supporting characters; that all the work on the first two issues was done in his studio, by himself or by others he paid and under his direction; and that Martin Goodman made no editorial contribution. According to Simon, he moved into the Timely offices after Martin Goodman asked him to begin editing all Timely comic books, but he worked on a freelance basis and not as a Timely employee.

 

Neither party disputes that Timely had copyrighted the Works in December 1940, when the first issue was published, and that Simon was fired from Timely at the end of 1941. Simon explains that until December 1941, he had not been receiving a full 25 percent share of the profits, and that, between that date until the mid-1960s, he received no financial benefit at all from the creation of the Captain America character.”

 

The decision also stated that the agreement which Simon signed in 1969, in effect siging over his rights to Marvel was binding, despite Simon's claims that he did not realize the full legal implications of the document.

 

Marvel’s request for a summary judgment in effect, asked the Court to review the issue at hand to see if there were any genuine issues of material fact for trial. Again, the Court sided with Marvel, agreeing with the publisher’s claims that Captain America was a work made for hire, and therefore the protection offered by section 304© of the Copyright Act of 1976 is unavailable to him. As such, the Court ruled that Simon’s notices of termination of copyright transfer were of no legal force, as he was not the owner of the copyright. The Court reaffirmed Marvel’s stance that it is the sole copyright holder of captain America and all related works.

 

As a result of the decision, the Court ordered the Clerk of Court to close the case and remove it from the court’s Active docket."

 

Go to newsarama and click the story for the full detailed report.