A judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging Warner Bros.’ right to distribute James Gunn’s Superman in 10 countries, including the U.K. and Ireland. The lawsuit was first filed in January by Mark Peary, the nephew of late Superman co-creator Joe Schuster, and argued that Schuster’s estate had the right to cancel the Superman copyright in certain territories.
In a ruling first released on April 24, 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,” he wrote.
Following the dismissal, Peary filed a nearly identical lawsuit in state court in New York on April 25. The lawsuit is seeking an injunction that could disrupt the release of Superman, which is set to hit theaters on July 11.
The copyright to Superman has been contested for decades, ever since Schuster and Jerome Siegel created the character and sold the copyright to him for $130 in 1938. In 2013, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal rejected the Shuster estate’s claim that they still hold the copyright, finding that Shuster’s sister had signed away all rights after Shuster’s death in 1992.
Peary’s lawsuit argues that that ruling settled the copyright claim forever with regard to the United States, but left the question of foreign copyrights undecided. As the movie’s release gets closer, though, the likelihood that this lawsuit will be able to halt its release continues to decrease.
