Home News Archie Wins Fulop Lawsuit Case And Fulop Is Now On The Defensive

Archie Wins Fulop Lawsuit Case And Fulop Is Now On The Defensive

Donnie
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Sonic may no longer be with Archie, but the original home of the Sonic comics is still dealing with what once was. However, Archie Comics has scored a big one in a year filled with uncertainty and sorrow.

You may recall the Fulop lawsuit against Archie. Well, a ruling has gone down.

U.S. District Judge Vincent L. Briccetti in White Plains ruled for Archie Comic Publications Inc. in a Sept. 5 court order.

Archie wins. Every single claim and request by Fulop was essentially dismissed.

Briccetti dismissed the copyright infringement and unfair competition claims, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is not improper to reproduce an author’s ideas without proper attribution.

The judge dismissed the deceptive business practices claim because Narrative Ark provided insufficient evidence of how Archie Comic Publications had harmed consumers.

Briccetti dismissed the unjust enrichment allegation under New York law because copyright law preempts claims under state law for matters covered by the federal law.

He dismissed the claims against Sega because the licensing agreement was not enough to establish jurisdiction in New York.

Fulop wanted to add two Archie Comic co-owners to the lawsuit, Nancy Silberkleit and Jonathan Goldwater. Briccetti denied the request, finding that the basis for adding them was “threadbare.”

This is also excellent news for SEGA. This means that SEGA is effectively in the clear, with no more need to worry about any losses. As for Archie, it’s even better. They are no longer on the defensive. In fact, they’re on the offensive now. The publisher had issued a counter-claim for slander, and not only has that not been dismissed, but Archie is in position to win it:

Fulop also is asking the court to declare that Archie Comic Publications’ original copyright registrations are invalid. And he asked the court to dismiss the publisher’s counterclaim that Fulop slandered Archie by casting doubt on the validity of its ownership of the works.

Briccetti rejected Fulop’s slander motion, for now, because if Archie Comic Publications can establish that it is the owner of the copyrights that Narrative Ark claims to own, then Archie will have established an element of slander.

And yes, Archie can, in fact, establish that. In theory, they can even prove irreparable harm and/or damages against Fulop. Why? Because Archie lost the Sonic license.

It looks like the Archie Sonic era, even though the comics themselves stopped abruptly, will get a bittersweet ending.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

Tags Archie ComicsSEGASonic The Hedgehog (Series)TSSZ NewsYOU BETRAYED THE LAW!
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Donnie

Donnie

A chao that wears a news reporter hat, Donnie has been a part of LMC since 2012, LMC's main news writer Donnie is also a part of the Uncutting Crew commentary series.

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41 Comments

      1. Agree, while Archie has lost the license but they at least now got one less thing to worry about with this win and considering what has been going on for them this year they need it.

    1. You live in a rules of law state guaranteed by the constitution my firend (and apparently a lot of people here seems to forget it).
      Justice can fail of course but rarely in such case which concerns only strictly technical details like the case of Fulop and Panders.

      So if Fulop has lost then he was simply not in his legal right, and Penders win then HE WAS in his LEGAL RIGHT.

      1. Right. Scott Fulop wasn’t able to provide any evidence to suggest foul play from Archie. Penders won his case because Archie failed to prove him wrong. It seems to me that Fulop just wanted to do this and expected to win because Penders got his way. He tries to say this isn’t right, but, in court cases, without concrete evidence to back your claim, you’re not gonna get very far.

        2. @SSF1991 That the Penders VS Sega – EA case regarding Sonic Chronicle, Archie was not involved in this one.

        3. ’tis unfortunate that even with his case dismissed he was still able to do so much damage to the comic.

          Well, at least, I think we can look forward to the future now rather than mourn the past. (I still have some hope that we might see the post-SGW archie again, seeing how everything after the reboot is owned by Sega).

        4. The case Penders VS Archie is even more funny, since it’s actually Archie which started the lawsuit, after seeing that they gonna lose, they fired all their legal team and choose to negociate with Penders instead,

  3. Does this still mean Sally Acorn and the Freedom Fighters can be part of the 2018 IDW Sonic comic book relaunch, but not Ken Penders’ Sonic characters?

    1. IIRC anything from the TV shows and games were “protected” by SEGA. So it’s possible, though we don’t know who exactly will show up in IDW’s version of Sonic.

      2. Keep in mind how Sega didn’t put out any merchandise for any of the Satam characters past the 90’s, forbid the Archie comics from referencing Underground, OVA and X it’s easy to see why they would do the same with pillars of Satam/Archie in these new ones. They might do that eye rolling thing that Disney has done where they’ll take a popular character from Star Wars EU and just tweak them into a new character unless they’re Thrawn.

        1. Maybe a licence deal with Sega can put Sat AM characters on merchandise – How about a deal with Hasbro or Mattel to make Sonic the Hedgehog Freedom Fighters action figures?

          Custom made T-shirts (even from TeePublic) are also possible.

  4. Well now that Archie lost Sonic, and these characters Fulop made will probably never be seen again, what could be the positive outcome of this?

    SEGA’s out of the debacle, and this is certainly a factor in the comic’s demise…
    but how could this affect the future of the comics now that they’re at IDW?

    1. Nothing will affect plans.Does IDW still use some characters from the Archie TMNT comic book era in the current IDW TMNT comics?

        1. At least Usagi Yojimbo, who appeared in the TMNT cartoons as a guest star under licence from Dark Horse, didn’t appear in the Archie TMNT comics but appeared recently in a special IDW TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo one shot issue.

  6. Hopefully the result can somehow at least net us the final issues of the Genesis of A Hero and Megadrive arcs, I just need to get closure from those stories. Then again, probably just wishful thinking, I don’t know how this would really affect those chances. But a guy can dream.

    1. Or maybe IDW could release them as graphic novels to tie in with the new first issue of its Sonic the Hedgehog era.

        1. All you would have to do is write around the Freedom Fighters/SatAM character stuff, unless they plan on still using them in the IDW series anyway. I mean the most relevant characters lately have been Sonic Team and DIC animation throwbacks anyway, as far as I know anyone in Adventures of and SatAM are fair game. The only thing that would discourage them from using them would be their heavy affiliation with the Archie series. But then again, I would think the smarter idea would be to capitalize on that affiliation and use it to draw in new and old fans alike. No sense in throwing away good characters if you can still make good use of them and you don’t have to worry about their ownership rights. All that would need to change is a few character designs, depending on who’s on board. I’d laugh with joy if both Ian Flynn and Tracey Yardley got to be carried over to this series and didn’t have to edit their designs that much, but again, wishful thinking, lol.

    2. Like it matters anyway he helped play a big role in the comics getting axed while he works on his trash that everybody acts like doesn’t have a market in certain terrible segments of this fanbase, it doesn’t take long looking at Deviantart to see idiots think that his embarrassing trash looks like art and the direction they want to see Sonic take a concept that makes me want to vomit just thinking about.

    1. Just you wait until we see how IDW handles Sonic the Hedgehog comic book plans in its 2018 launch following previews on October 8, 2017 during the New York Comic-Con. even without Fulop and Penders Sonic characters!

    2. And maybe at least one of the Freedom Fighters – mostly Sally Acorn – stays for the IDW Sonic relaunch.

  10. The ship has already sunken and the treasures aboard have been looted plenty. There is nothing left besiege memories. Glad they won.

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