A Ninth Circuit appeals ruling went to Warner Brothers this week in what looks to be one of the company’s final battles with the estate of Jerry Siegel over rights to the Superman franchise. Following on the heels of a ruling that upheld Warner’s claims against the estate of Joe Shuster, the ruling places the rights to Superman and associated creations like Kryptonite, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Smallville, and Metropolis (much of which post-dated Siegel and Shuster’s involvement with the franchise) more firmly in Warner’s control. The development removes one obstacle to Warner’s plans for a Justice League movie franchise to answer Marvel and Disney’s Avengers series, and it now looks like a Justice League movie is set to go head to head with Avengers 2 in 2015. For more details on the ruling, see the New York Times’ coverage of the story.
(Thanks to Barry Pearl for giving me a heads-up on this story.)