Carmine Infantino, Barry Allen, Barbara Gordon & DC Comics walk into a courtroom...
I'm getting nostalgic again.
I'd thought we'd seen the last of these (Golden &) Silver Age ownership cases come up, but an attorney for Carmine Infantino has come up with a new wrinkle to help pry back the fingers of corporate ownership by making the claim that his client had only ever given DC comics permission to use the Flash (and Batgirl, and a likely good list of characters he had a hand in creating between 1943 and 1967) in comic books. In an environment where comics are being increasingly mined as a source for Hollywood properties - and where the comics publishing business itself has become by comparison a financial footnote in the quarterly reports - this becomes a huge issue.
Of course, the legal brief filed Thursday is a full copyright claim for these characters, probably on the sound negotiation basis of asking for more than one ever seriously expects to get.
This will be an interesting case to watch for developments on, though these matters generally move at a glacial pace. Depending upon the list of characters Infantino and attorney come up with, though, they might be able to get a good settlement out of Time/Warner if one or more of the creations is in development for a tv or film project. Still, considering the floodgates that could open for the rest of their properties, they're not going to be in a rush to make that accomodation and so set that precedent.
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