A judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging Warner Bros.‘ copyright to “Superman” in 10 countries, finding that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over the dispute.
Mark Peary, the nephew of late “Superman” co-creator Joe Shuster, sued the studio and its DC Comics subsidiary in January, arguing that Shuster’s estate had a right to cancel “Superman” copyrights in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and other territories.
In a ruling on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman held that the court has no authority to address the estate’s rights under foreign laws.
“The Court concludes that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over this case; the case therefore must be and is dismissed,” Furman wrote.
Undeterred, Peary filed a nearly identical lawsuit on Friday morning in state court in New York. The state suit seeks an injunction that could, in theory, interfere with the July 11 release of “Superman,” the franchise reboot directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet.
Peary’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, previously sought a federal injunction that would block the film’s release in the U.K., Canada, Australia and Ireland unless the Shuster estate were compensated.
In throwing out the federal lawsuit, Furman also denied the injunction as moot.
The “Superman” copyright has been the subject of decades of litigation, ever since Shuster and Jerome Siegel created the character and sold it for $130 in 1938. In 2013, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal rejected the Shuster estate’s claims, finding that Shuster’s sister had signed away all rights after Shuster’s death in 1992.
Toberoff argued that the 9th Circuit opinion settled the matter with regard to U.S. copyright law, but left the estate’s overseas interests unresolved. He argued that under British law, the estate had a right to terminate the copyright in 2017, 25 years after Shuster’s death.
Toberoff argued that U.S. courts have authority under the Berne Convention, the international copyright treaty, to enforce overseas copyrights. Warner Bros.’ attorneys countered that the Berne Convention is unenforceable in federal court.
Toberoff has not sought to bring copyright suits in the U.K. or the other territories, which would present various inconveniences.
The studio attorneys also argued that the “Superman” copyright issue has been exhaustively litigated and resolved. The character is due to enter the public domain in 2034.
From Variety US