Marvel Is Suing to Keep the Rights of the 'Avengers' Characters

Marvel is launching a lawsuit to protect their characters.

The company will be suing to hold onto the Avengers characters, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Falcon, THR reported Friday (September 24).

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The company’s complaints, being filed against heirs of comic book legends like Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Gene Colan, are seeking declaratory relief that the characters are ineligible for copyright termination as works made for hire.

Last month, the administrator of Steve Ditko’s estate filed a notice of termination on Spider Man.

Marvel is making the case that Spider-Man and Doctor Strange were created as a “Works for Hire,” which gives the copyright to Disney. The Ditko estate is saying that the characters were sold and licensed to Marvel, which disqualifies the “Works for Hire” status.

“Under the termination provisions of copyright law, authors or their heirs can reclaim rights once granted to publishers after waiting a statutory set period of time. According to the termination notice, Marvel would lose rights to its iconic character in June 2023,” the outlet reported.

“The cases will focus on the creation of these characters and whether they should be deemed as works made for hire. If so, then the publisher would be deemed the statutory author.”

THR notes that if Marvel loses, Disney would be letting ownership of the characters go, resulting in billions in losses.

Disney is also involved in another major lawsuit involving a huge star – find out what they’re saying about the future of the company.