The legal win comes as the company prepares to release a new Superman flick this year
Warner Bros Discovery has maintained its hold on the rights to the DC character Superman as it prepares to release a new movie about the superhero this year, reported Reuters.
The company recorded a legal win over the estate of illustrator Joseph Shuster, who co-created Superman, in relation to a copyright suit when New York District Court judge Jesse Furman said his court did not have jurisdiction over the claims.
After creating the character with writer Jerome Siegel, Shuster had licensed Superman to Detective Comics, DC’s predecessor. Since 1999, the estate has tussled with Warner and its DC Comics subsidiary on the rights to the character.
Shuster’s estate had sought damages for Superman’s use in the UK, Canada, Australia, and other countries – usage it said was unauthorized. The January suit said that as per British law, Superman’s rights reverted to Shuster in 2017; it accused Warner of not paying the royalties for using the character in countries holding to UK copyright reversion law, such as India, Israel, and Ireland.
The estate also sought a court order to keep Warner from releasing Superman depictions without a license.
Furman dismissed the estate’s case on the grounds that it was “brought explicitly under the laws of foreign countries, not the laws of the United States,” according to a statement published by Reuters.
“As we have consistently maintained, DC controls all rights to Superman,” a Warner spokesperson said in a statement published by Reuters after Furman’s ruling was made last Thursday.
The attorney of Shuster’s estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters. On Friday, the estate refiled its suit in New York state court.
Warner’s upcoming Superman movie is set be released in July. The film is intended to reboot the DC Comics superhero movie franchise; it is directed by James Gunn and stars David Corenswet.
