Warner Bros will get to decide when and how Superman can fly
12 Jan 2013 6:38 AM IST
Just in time for the summer release of a hoped-for blockbuster movie ‘Man of Steel,’ Warner Bros. won a second significant legal victory Thursday giving it complete commercial control of the lucrative Superman franchise.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals unanimously ruled that the heirs of Superman's co-creator Jerome Siegel must abide by a 2001 letter written by the family's attorney accepting Warner Bros.' offer for their 50 per cent share of Superman. Though the five-page letter was never formalized into a contract, the appeals court said it was still binding.
‘Statements from the attorneys for both parties establish that the parties had undertaken years of negotiations, that they had resolved the last outstanding point in the deal during a conversation on October 15, 2001, and that the letter accurately reflected the material terms they had orally agreed to on that day,’ Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the panel.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals unanimously ruled that the heirs of Superman's co-creator Jerome Siegel must abide by a 2001 letter written by the family's attorney accepting Warner Bros.' offer for their 50 per cent share of Superman. Though the five-page letter was never formalized into a contract, the appeals court said it was still binding.
‘Statements from the attorneys for both parties establish that the parties had undertaken years of negotiations, that they had resolved the last outstanding point in the deal during a conversation on October 15, 2001, and that the letter accurately reflected the material terms they had orally agreed to on that day,’ Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the panel.
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