The property of Superman co-creator Joseph Schuster is suing Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Comics.
Superman opens in United States theaters this coming July. Directed by James Gunn, the DCU superhero film stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.
Per Deadline, plaintiff Mark Warren Peary, who’s the executor of Schuster’s property, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Comics in Federal Courtroom within the Southern District of New York on Friday, January 31, 2025.
Why is the Superman creator’s property suing Warner Bros. over the DCU film?
The lawsuit is looking for “damages and injunctive aid for Defendants’ ongoing infringement in Canada, the UK, Eire, and Australia, in addition to declaratory aid establishing the Shuster Property’s possession rights throughout related jurisdictions.”
Which means Schuster’s property is claiming that the DCU film “lacks the rights to launch the upcoming summer season tentpole in a handful of key territories.”
A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesman stated in response to the lawsuit, “We basically disagree with the deserves of the lawsuit, and can vigorously defend our rights.”
Deadline’s article additional explains, “At challenge are international copyrights to the unique Superman character and story, coauthored by Jerome Siegel and Shuster. Although Siegel and Shuster assigned worldwide Superman rights to DC’s predecessor in 1938 ‘for a mere $130 ($65 every), the copyright legal guidelines of nations with the British authorized custom—together with Canada, the UK, Eire, and Australia—include provisions routinely terminating such assignments 25 years after an creator’s demise, vesting within the Shuster Property the co-author’s undivided copyright curiosity in such nations,’ the swimsuit stated.”
The lawsuit continues, “Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of legislation, Shuster’s international copyrights routinely reverted to his property in 2017 in most of those territories (and in 2021 in Canada). But Defendants proceed to use Superman throughout these jurisdictions with out the Shuster Property’s authorization—together with in movement photos, tv sequence, and merchandise—in direct contravention of those nations’ copyright legal guidelines, which require the consent of all joint copyright house owners to take action.”
Initially reported by Brandon Schreur on SuperHeroHype.
