By: DIANA HERRERA-PADILLA
Staff Writer
Disney is now heading to court in order to still keep and have control over some of the most known characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Starting on Friday September 24 Disney had filed lawsuits against heirs of several writers and artists who want to seek to reclaim the copyrights of some characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Marvel Entertainment, which Disney owns. The suits are happening because of copyright-termination notices that had been filed earlier this year. Wanting rights back to the characters that were created by the authors. But because of the U.S. copyright law authors or their heirs can reclaim the rights from publishers after a certain amount of years. If the heirs or the authors themselves can be successful in this lawsuit Marvel would still have the rights to use these characters but would require them to share profits and ownerships with the creators heirs. Among those seeking termination are Stan Lee’s younger brother, Steve Hitko, Don Heck, Don Rico, and Gene Colan. Each one of them is being represented by property lawyer Marc Toberoff.