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2009 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

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July 9, 2009: DC/WB Cleared of Any Violation in Superman Licensing Agreement

ComicBookResources.com updates us on a ruling handed down in the on-going legal battle between Jerry Siegel's family and DC Comics.

    Another court decision has been made in the Siegel family's tense relationship with DC Comics. By virtue of previous decisions, the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel have been co-owners with DC Comics of the Superman copyright from 1999 until now. In 2008, the Siegels alleged that DC, in licensing the Superman characters to Warner Bros. Entertainment for audiovisual projects including "Smallville" and "Superman Returns," violated the terms of their profit-sharing agreement.

    The plaintiffs felt that because Warner Bros. Entertainment and DC Comics are both part of the same corporate entity, the licensing fees paid to DC Comics in the period between 1999 and 2002 (for the aforementioned "Smallville" and "Superman Returns" projects) were below market value. Essentially, the Siegels argued that DC Comics gave Warner Bros. Entertainment a "sweetheart deal," which would result in DC (and due to their co-ownership, the Siegels) not receiving as much money as they would in a traditionally "fair market deal."

    In today's decision, the court ruled that DC and Warner Bros. Entertainment did indeed participate in a "fair market deal," and that the Siegels are not entitled to any payments beyond the terms of the audiovisual licenses as they presently stand.

You can read the full court ruling on this matter as a PDF file at UncivilSociety.org. Of interest to Superman movie fans is a paragraph on Page 26 in which you can read details of Alan Horn's testimony regarding the Superman movie franchise...

    Mr. Horn testified that, aside from his "hopes" to develop the Superman character, at present the property is not under development at Warner Bros. (Trial Tr. at 166). No script has been written, filming has not commenced, and the earliest a Superman film could be theatrically released would be in 2012. (Trial Tr. at 155). As Mr. Horn explained, "we had hopes to keep the [Superman] character alive and to once again reinvent Superman. We are... our hope is to develop a Superman property and to try again. What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie... did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us." (Trial Tr. at 153). Thus, in the seven years since the Superman film agreement was executed a single movie has been released and no further development has occurred."

You can also read a statement released by Warner Bros. Entertainment and DC Comics, at the CBR website.

Update: Various news media have reported on the court ruling. Here's a portion of a report from the LA Times which expands on certain issues.

    The Siegels' attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he did not expect to appeal today's decision. "My guess is we would not separately appeal this. This is part of a multi-faceted accounting case."

    In response to the decision, Toberoff released a statement saying "the entire accounting action pales in camparison to the fact that in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of [co-creator] Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a licencse from the Siegels and Shusters."

    He also pointed out that the court ruled that if Warner Bros. does not start production on a new Superman sequel by 2011, the Siegels could sue to recover their damages.


2009 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News

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