Archie Comics v. Penders trial delayed “indefinitely”

You’ll have to bear with me, folks – Tristan’s usually our legal beagle here at TSSZ News, but he’s currently indisposed at the moment, leaving me to do my best with the latest chapter in the ongoing saga that is Archie Comics v. Penders. Today, TSSZ News has learned that Judge Richard M. Berman has indefinitely postponed the trial that would decide the fate of Ken Penders’ legal authority over numerous characters he created for Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

The trial was originally set to go before the judge way back in October 2011, before being delayed until January 2012 in an effort to give the involved parties more time to prepare their cases. That trial has now been delayed indefinitely in order to give Archie Comics a chance to file “Summary Judgement”. Summary judgement is more or less exactly what it sounds like: the assumption that the outcome is obvious and can be quickly and easily proven, therefore bypassing the protracted and costly process of the actual trial. Should Archie Comics be granted summary judgement, it would strike a major blow to the validity of Penders’ case.

Should this end up going to trial, however, the list of witnesses is already looking very interesting; obviously important figures in Archie Comics like Mike Pellerito, Victor Gorelick and Jon Goldwater are set to take the stand for Archie Comics, but going to bat in defense of Penders’ side are veteran Sonic comics alumni like Scott Shaw, Justin Gabrie, Karl Bollers, and Jim Valentino, among others.

Depending on the circumstances, we may have a more in-depth article about all of this once Tristan returns to his post on Tuesday – stay tuned.