Iron Man was first introduced in his metal suit back in 1963 but that hasn’t stopped a comic book company from claiming that Marvel ripped off their body armor for the Iron Man suit that appears in the* Iron Man* movies.

Horizon Comics Productions, Inc. is a Canadian company that owns rights to a series of comic books called Radix. In 2001, plaintiff published three volumes of the comic that feature heroic characters wearing highly detailed, futuristic and weaponized body armor. The creators of the comic, Ben and Ray Lai, after the Radix series, went to work for Marvel. Horizon Comics claims that “it was not until after the Lai brothers’ (grammatical mistake in original) submitted their work in Radix to Marvel that marvel began depicting Iron Man wearing the Suits”. Huh?? Horizon Comics claims that the Iron Man suits are substantially similar to theirs because they allow him to fly, shoot projectiles and perform superhuman feats. Horizon Comics completely ignores the fact that the suits have been doing this for decades, way before Radix was even created. The complaint, signed by two law firms in Boston, is filled with mistakes including an “Error! Reference source not found” message.

The idea of having a character wear an interactive body armor that fights crime is not protectable under copyright. Many other stories, including that character of A.T.O.M. now appearing on *Arrow, feature characters in a *a similar weaponized suit. What is protected is the overall look and details of the drawing and design that makes up the suit. In this case, armor featured in the Iron Man movies is not that dissimilar from earlier suits featured in the comics dating back to 1963. The upgrades and changes over time to the suits all appear to be derivative works of the original copyright. All the Iron Man suits are protected under copyright as well and predate the plaintiff’s comic. Not sure what the dispute even is in this case.

I don’t see this case lasting long as it is likely to be dismissed. Horizon Comics must be careful though because if they lose this action they could owe Marvel its attorneys’ fees in litigating the matter. The box office take of Avengers: Age of Ultron might pale in comparison to those attorneys’ bills.

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