Marvel wins appeal in Jack Kirby copyright case

Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk can continue to reside in Marvel's offices after a US federal appeal court rejected an ownership claim by the children of an artist who helped create them.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed on Thursday with a lower court judge who denied claims by the family of Jack Kirby, the legendary artist who died in 1994 and whose work spanned more than half a century. His heirs in California and New York wanted to terminate Marvel's copyrights from 2014 to 2019 to comics published from 1958 to 1963.

Marvel sued in 2010 to prevent it, leading US District Judge Colleen McMahon in July 2011 to conclude the work was done "for hire," a legal term that rendered the heirs' claims invalid.

She said the 1909 copyright law that applies to the case presumed that Marvel was the author and owner of Kirby's creations because the characters were made at Marvel's expense.

The appeals court agreed, saying that when "Kirby sat down to draw, then, it was not in the hope that Marvel or some other publisher might one day be interested enough in them to buy, but with the expectation, established through their ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship, that Marvel would pay him."