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Decision of Note: <B>Writer is Co-Owner Of Rights in 'Spawn' Character</B>

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
March 01, 2004

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that comic-book writer Neil Gaiman was joint owner of the copyrights in characters he created for the “Spawn” series published by Todd McFarlane. Gaiman v. McFarlane, 03-1331. The appeals court reached its decision by finding that Gaiman's claim wasn't time-barred.

Gaiman began writing for Todd McFarlane under an oral agreement in 1992. Gaiman then created, named or described, and wrote the dialogue for three new characters ' Medieval Spawn, Angela and Count Nicholas Cogliostro ' that McFarlane illustrated. Gaiman filed suit in January 2002 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin for, among other things, a joint ownership declaration. A jury ruled in favor of Gaiman and the district judge entered a judgment that Gaiman indeed was co-owner of the character copyrights.

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