Warner Bros Seeks Court Ordered End To Superman Legal Battle

Less than a month after scoring a major legal victory in the Superman copyright case, Warner Bros today sought to finish off the suit by the heirs of co-creator Jerry Siegel. “After nearly a decade of litigation, the Siegel Superman and Siegel Superboy cases can now come to an end,” said the motion for summary judgment (read it here) filed Thursday. The studio wants the federal court to assert the January 10 ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that essentially gave Warner Bros full rights to the superhero character and the freedom to move forward with its Superman big screen reboot Man of Steel and other related properties without the threat of further legal action by the creators’ heirs and estates. The ruling last month overturned a 2008 ruling that Laura Siegel Larson and the estate of Joanne Siegel still controlled the lucrative rights to Superman and his younger self Superboy because a binding agreement was never reached by the parties. “In short, these cases are over. Any attempt by Larson to resuscitate them is futile,” the studio and its DC Comics subsidiary said in today’s filing by lawyers Daniel Petrocelli, Matthew Kline and Cassandra Seto. “In both the Superman and Superboy cases, DC’s Fourth Counterclaim seeks a declaration that Larson transferred her Superman and Superboy copyrights to DC pursuant to a 2001 settlement agreement, and that the parties are bound by the terms of that agreement,” it added. “The Ninth Circuit requested that this Court resolve these questions on remand, and the Court can and should do so now, and bring these two long-running cases to an end.” Defendants WB and DC Comics have requested a hearing on the motion for March 11, the same day several other matters in the Man of Steel legal saga are to be addressed by the court.

Related: Lawyer For Superman Heirs Want DC Comics Suit Dismissed

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