Marvel Sues Buena Vista Over Spider-Man Artwork

[Matt Hazuda]

Taken from http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/new...idermandc.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marvel Enterprises Inc., the comic book giant that owns rights to superhero Spider-Man, is suing Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista home entertainment unit, saying Buena Vista used its artwork without permission to promote a Spider-Man cartoon series unrelated to the current hit film.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court late on Wednesday, seeks an immediate injunction against Buena Vista to stop it using the artwork. It also wants the court to order Buena Vista to retrieve and destroy all copies of the artwork already in circulation.

Officials of Marvel and Buena Vista were not immediately available for comment. A court clerk said a hearing date had been set for the morning of May 17.

Marvel said Buena Vista had timed the release of a new Spider-Man home video cartoon series to coincide directly with the opening of Columbia Pictures' new ``Spider-Man'' movie, which opened last week and set a new box office record by pulling in $115 million in its first weekend.

Marvel said Buena Vista had sought its permission to release the cartoon series but had not been given authorization to use the company's Spider-Man artwork for use in its advertising and promotion materials. It said advertisements appeared in such newspapers as The Daily News and Newsday in New York City and in Toys 'R Us and Wal-Mart stores in different parts of the United States.

``Buena Vista is advertising and promoting its exploitation of the series through the use of artwork that is directly copied from the Marvel 'Spider-Man' artwork,'' Marvel said in its suit. ``Marvel has not consented to or approved of such usage.''

Specifically, Marvel said Buena Vista had copied the artwork picturing Spider-Man scaling the side of a tall building from the vantage point of someone on the roof looking down at the character creeping up.

It said the artwork was ``virtually identical'' to Marvel's Spider-Man image, including the positions of the character's legs, arms, hands and fingers.

I say good for Marvel, don't let Disney mooch off another thing they took from someone else. Opinions?

Also please note that this does not relate to the DVD and VHS release of Spider-Man's Ultimate Villain Showdown, but just some advertising materials. So no need to rush out and buy it if you haven't already.

[Jimmy Kustes]

That was really sloppy of the graphic designers and marketers to do.

[Christopher N. Denner]

Looks like someone beat me to it here.

I say POOH! on both Disney and Marvel.

It was pretty stupid to swipe pics from Activision. Then again... Marvel doesn't like the fact that he's sticking to a wall? HUH? what does Marvel EXPECT them to do? Have spidey sipping drinking a beer on some beach?

O_o

[Barb Gordon]

Good for Marvel. Disney, or any company for that matter, shouldn't be able to just do anything it wants without permission. They shouldn't have been able to advertise without authorization, that's just stupid. And spooie, I think the problem wasn't that Spidey was sticking to a wall, but that Disney used that pose in their advertising, and they weren't authorized to do so.

~Barb

[Mad Monkey 7]

I for one, think that the ads helped with the Spider-Man movie. It like free advertising for the character and with Episode II coming out, they will need it.

[Christopher N. Denner]

Originally posted by Barb Gordon
And spooie, I think the problem wasn't that Spidey was sticking to a wall, but that Disney used that pose in their advertising, and they weren't authorized to do so.

~Barb

I read in another article that they objected to simply just the pose. Oh well. It's all over my head anyway.

[Joe Wagner]

Ok - I deal alot in the communications field and know a lot about marketing and some of the stuff that goes with it. Marvel actually has a reason for this suit being there because they should be able to control what is seen and isn't seen by the video market when it is their product being marketed. If you look at almost every thing Spider-Man in the market what is Marvel trying to promote? Ultimate Spider-Man - even if the product deals with past incarnations of Spider-Man the entire marketing campaign is centered on using the Ultimate Spider-Man theme and I'm sure Marvel would have liked to have used some of their stock of Ultimate art to make the main menu screens.

Even though this probably wouldn't have been the best idea its the name Marvel wants the public to know and is perhaps the easiest Spidey title for a new reader to get in too between back issues and tpb's. On the other hand it's a shame that this disc is going to get recalled because Buena Vista did an amazing job with it and this could hamper further relations between the two companies. I would look for a deal to be made between the two and for the current release to remain on the market while Marvel gets a larger share of the market. Also any new production runs of the disk will probably have new artwork and a little paper ad stating that you can subscribe to Ultimate Spider-Man for $20 a year.

-Joe!

[GrayGhost]

This will just make more people go out and buy the cartoon on DVD, etc because then if they are pulled from shelves you will see a massive listing for them on eBay "OOP! RARE!"...

I agree w/ who said he is Spider-Man, what else is he going to do than cling to a wall. Perhaps they are mad because it is similar to the Spider-Man movie poster?

I think this is stupid. Disney now owns the cartoon because of the purchase of Saban Entertainment, Marvel probably just wants a bigger cut than they are already getting.