Warner Bros. lost a potentially costly SUPERMAN battle against attorney Marc Toberoff for co-creator Jerome Siegel's heirs, VARIETY reports.
The federal ruling gives the heirs a stake in the rights, which were sold more than 70 years ago, and could put a wrinkle in Warners' plans to make more movies. Compounding the problem, co-creator Joe Shuster's heirs are eligible to also sue in five years.
The studio has at least two SUPERMAN projects in the works, a follow-up to Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS and JUSTICE LEAGUE, and may end up paying tens of millions from the domestic returns from SUPERMAN RETURNS to Siegel's heirs.
The ruling applies to all domestic monies for all Superman projects since 1999.
Toberoff, a dedicated copyright crusader, has previously pursued claims involving WILD WILD WEST, DUKES OF HAZZARD, SMALLVILLE and upcoming GET SMART.
Other studios, including Sony, have been targeted, but his most high-profile and most lucrative victories have been against Warners, including a $17.5 million settlement to MOONRUNNERS producer Robert B. Clark. It was ruled that the 1974 movie and the big screen THE DUKES OF HAZZARD were similar enough for Clark to receive compensation.
The case over SMALLVILLE is still being resolved, although a federal judge has ruled in the Siegel family's favor.
Warners declined to comment to VARIETY on the ruling, issuing a statement saying: "substantial issues relating to the accounting of profits were ruled in our favor."
The issues include international profits, trademark-related revenues and profits from Superman fare created before 1999, the year the Siegel heirs ended their earlier copyright arrangement under a 1974 law.
The family has been struggling with poverty ever since Siegel sold his rights to Superman to Detective Comics for a scant $130. Siegel, who died in 1996, had long wished to resolve getting so little money for his creation.
He first sued for his work in 1948, against DC Comics.
Toberoff's production company, Intellectual Properties Worldwide, has been set up to develop films around projects whose copyright claims he goes after.
His name appears as a producing credit for projects like FANTASY ISLAND and SANFORD AND SON.
