Jury to Hear Marvel / Ghost Rider Copyright Case Appeal

28 June, 2013 14 July, 2024

On public record at least, things have been fairly quiet in the ongoing legal dispute between Sonic comic publisher Archie Comics and former Sonic writer Ken Penders. The lawsuit, having escaped summary judgment last year, seeks to resolve once and for all who owns copious amounts of back content in the Sonic series during Penders’s tenure.

It’s with that in mind that we’d like to update you about an unrelated but potentially important second case that continues to make its way through the civil justice system. In 2011, we told you about Gary Friedrich Enterprises, LLC vs. Marvel Enterprises, Inc., which in several ways mirrored the action in the Penders case. It centered over who owned the rights to comic and movie character Ghost Rider. In 2011, a judge ruled freelance writer Friedrich gave up the rights to Ghost Rider when he signed and cashed checks from Marvel that included language relinquishing the rights over to the company. An appeal was planned at the time.

Now, we’ve learned that appeal has been granted by the Second Circuit, and that a judge has now ordered there be a jury trial. A report from Deadline.com notes the decision came yesterday, and that a trial date has been set for November 4th. Marvel plans to file a motion for the trial to be held without a jury.

Why is this relevant to the Penders case? This decision has come out of the same federal court hearing Archie v. Penders, though not the same judge. Friedrich v. Marvel is also being handled in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. That means if this case wraps first, any judgment made could be directly applied to Archie v. Penders as precedent, in judgment, appeal, or otherwise–and vice-versa. Furthermore, having cases like these go to a jury tend to give those like Penders and Friedrich the best chance of winning, rather than summary judgment beforehand. Freidrich just got his wish. Now, will Penders?

It’s important to pay attention to related cases in this ongoing affair; just as the initial decision in Friedrich v. Marvel could have given Archie a stronger defense in 2011, any reversal that happens before resolution certainly could swing matters in the other direction. We will continue to keep you informed on the Penders case, both directly and with any indirect matters of note.

10 Comments

I doubt Penders will be as lucky as Freidrich is.

Ax says:

28 June, 2013 at 6:15 PM

I agree.

..is this a new popular thign to do. make a charicter for a company leave the company and then ge tinvolved in a lawsuit with them. im getting sick of this
the pender vs archie should of ended months agao and now this!
what the hell is the world coming to?

I was really hoping this whole mess would be settled by the end of the crossover. It appears I wont be getting that

As always. Penders just needs to go away and give ACP back their characters. Even if he wins, he’s already alienated any people that may have even considered buying his sonic rip-off comic. People have even stated that if they were to check out his work, it’d be only out of curiosity and even then, it’d be from a pirated copy online, for free.

truebluesonicfan says:

30 June, 2013 at 9:30 PM

This is silly. I don’t see where Penders has done anything to alienate anyone. He has every right to be compensated for his work on the series and stand up against it being exploited. If Archie decides to remove the characters from the series instead of paying the royalties Penders is due, that’s certainly not his fault. If anyone is ripping someone off, it’s Archie.

The main to keep in mind is that Ghost Rider is a wholly original character whereas the Penders characters are all based on the Sonic setting.

Solar says:

29 June, 2013 at 3:55 PM

This.

The characters that Penders created for the Sonic comic are all derivative of SEGA’s property (how many of them alone are just relatives of Sonic and friends?). While it’s entirely possible to strip away that connection and all, that would kinda defeat the purpose of Penders doing this project with “his” characters in the first place
(i.e. riding the coattails of Sonic’s success without his contributions). Really, while I believe the man is entitled to some royalties from reprints, I don’t see why he doesn’t just let everything else go and make a wholly original work at this point. That would’ve taken far less time than this nonsense AND would’ve gotten him respect from his fans and probably have made more money. If he’s the creative genius he wants everyone else to think he is, that really shouldn’t be a problem. And hey, the guy had some good ideas (except for “Sonic Live!” and a few others), poorly executed most of the time and his art was some of the weakest in the book (second only to Many Hands’ contributions), but he can clearly write a decent story once in a while (some of his early Knuckles stuff was readable, save for the awful “clever” dialogue).

Regardless of whether the characters are derivative or not, this case will still have bearing either way on the Archie vs. Penders case. I hate to be all doom and gloom, but I’m thinking we’re going to lose the comic after all. Wouldn’t be the first time Penders has cost us something good Sonic related though… Poor Ben Hurst… Didn’t deserve that knife in the back from Penders…

This whole mess stems from this guy having a wild hair about a video game supposedly ripping off his stories. There are similarities I get that, but aren’t there older stories the use many of the same elements that Penders used? Isn’t he essentially “ripping off” other people’s stories?

You mean to tell me that Locke having a portent of doom and ensuring his son would have the means to survive and fulfill a greater destiny doesn’t sound like Jor El from the Superman mythos? Likewise the Twilight Zone and the Phantom Zone? How about using time travel to save loved ones from harm?

In fact, let’s look at Shade. Her character arc is her being loyal to a technologically inclined villain, before rebelling and siding with the heroes after seeing the villain for what he is beneath the surface. Doesn’t that sound like Ms Teschmacher from the Superman films, or the same goddamned arc Knuckles himself went through when he first appeared??

(EDIT – Threatening Remarks -T)

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