Back in November, we wrote about the litigation surrounding the estates of the two men who created Superman. Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel transferred the copyright to Superman to National Comics Publications in the 1930s. For the past 80 years, the two men and then their estates have been trying to get those rights back. Warner Bros. has been involved for more than 10 years. The one notable victory for the creators occurred in 2008 when a judge gave them back the rights to the first Superman comic book.

Warner Bros. wants to hold on to the rest of the copyrights. It has a few projects in the pipeline tied to Superman, and not owning the rights would make it difficult and expensive to move forward. The estates want those rights terminated. (In fact, Siegel's estate has sent official notice to Warner's that they will reclaim the copyright when it comes up for renewal in 2013.) When we left off in November, Warner's most recent suit against Siegel's widow (then her estate) and her attorney had been stayed until the judge could rule on one of the many motions filed by each side.

The estates chalked up another victory this week. The judge denied one of Warner's motions that had asked for access to documents belonging to the estates. Warner claims the documents contain information about how Siegel's and Shuster's estates will split the proceeds when they finally terminate Warner's rights. The studio also claims that the documents show "consent agreements" between the estates that they would make no more copyright deals with Warner's.

Continued in our next post.

Source: Reuters, "Warner Bros. loses again in 'Superman' litigation," Eriq Gardner, 04/13/11