Disney Has an Avengers-Sized Legal Problem (Maybe Bigger Than It Realizes) - NewsBreak

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By Martin in Business
Updated 3 years ago

Seven years ago, in a moment both momentous and foreshadowing, Disney blinked. At the time, Disney's Marvel unit was facing off against the estate of comic book legend Jack Kirby over whether his heirs could terminate a copyright grant and thus reclaim rights on characters including Spider-Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and The Mighty Thor. And, this needs to be stressed: Disney was winning. A federal court ruled in 2011 that Kirby's contributions as an illustrator between 1958 and 1963 were works made for hire and not eligible for termination. By 2014, the Kirby estate had taken the dispute up to...

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