‘Superman’ Estate Sues Warner Bros. Discovery, May Block Release In International Territories

Warner Brothers Discovery and DC Comics are being sued by the estate of Superman co-creator Joseph Schuster.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday 31^st January in Federal Court in the Southern District of New York claims Warner Bros and DC do not own the rights to release July’s Superman in a number of international territories including U.K., Canada, Ireland and Australia. The suit is seeking “damages and injunctive relief for Defendants’ ongoing infringement in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, as well as declaratory relief establishing the Shuster Estate’s ownership rights across relevant jurisdictions.”

The case comes from a long running legal battle, that can be traced back to 1938 when Superman co-creators Joseph Shuster and Jerome Siegel sold their rights to the character and story for a meagre $130 dollars. The duo originally sued DC back in 1947, seeking to invalidate DC’s ownership. That case was settled for $94,000.

Shuster died in 1992, and Siegel in 1996 but both creator’s estates, have continued to battle for the rights. Under U.S copyright law a creator would typically be able to reclaim domestic rights after a period of time. But after Shuster’s death in 1992 his sister and brother reached a deal with DC in 1992 that terminated that right in exchange for $25,000 per year. A federal appeals court later upheld that determination when the estate attempted to sue in 2013.

Now Shuster’s estate looks to take advantage of U.K. copyright law, which automatically terminates copyright assignments 25 years after an author’s death.

The suit argues that “the copyright laws of countries with the British legal tradition—including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia—contain provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25 years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s undivided copyright interest in such countries”. It also argues “Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which require the consent of all t copyright owners to do so.”

It is unclear at this time how this may impact the international roll out for Superman, this summer. The film written and directed by James Gunn, is set to be released July 11th. The trailer released in December of last year quickly broke records, receiving over 250 million views, and a million social posts in 24 hours making it DC’s most viewed trailer.

In a statement, WBD said, “We fundamentally disagree with the merits of the lawsuit, and will vigorously defend our rights.”