Marvel Entertainment and the family of Jack Kirby have had a long-running legal dispute over the rights to some of Marvel's most popular characters for a number of years now, but it has finally been settled out of court just days before the case was set to be appealed before the Supreme Court. "Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby have amicably resolved their legal disputes, and are looking forward to advancing their shared goal of honoring Mr. Kirby's significant role in Marvel's history," the company and Kirby's family said in a joint statement released today.
Kirby's heirs had been pursuing Marvel over profits relating to characters co-created by the artist and sought to terminate grants of copyrights to the characters, under a clause of the 1976 Copyright Act. However, Marvel contended that they continued to own the characters because Kirby was working "for hire." It's likely that they've been paid a huge sum or promised a cut moving forwards, though it's not quite clear what would have happened if the Kirby family had managed to get their hands on the rights to characters like the Hulk and Fantastic Four. Now, we'll never know...
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