Siegel
Siegel v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Larson, J.
ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT; ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT
The termination provisions contained in the Copyright Act of 1976 have aptly been characterized as formalistic and complex, such that authors, or their heirs, successfully terminating the grant to the copyright in their original work of authorship is a feat accomplished “against all odds.” 2 WILLIAM F. PATRY, PaTRY ON COPYRIGHT § 7:52 (2007).
In the present case, Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson, the widow and the daughter of Jerome Siegel, seek a declaration from the Court that they have overcome these odds and have successfully terminated the 1938 grant by Jerome Siegel and his creative partner, Joseph Shuster, of the copyright in their creation of the iconic comic book superhero “Superman,” thereby recapturing Jerome Siegel’s half of the copyright in the same. No small feat indeed. It requires traversing the many impediments — many requiring a detailed historical understanding both factually and legally of the events that occurred between the parties over the past seventy years — to…