Iron Man was first introduced in his metal suit back in 1963 but that didn’t stop 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. But, the case was dismissed on a technicality, when the judge determined that Massachusetts was not a proper venue to bring the lawsuit.

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 numerous mistakes as noted and 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 *Legends of Tomorrow, 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.

The judge did not even address the issue of copyright infringement when dismissing the case. Instead, the court held that it lacked jurisdiction to haul Marvel into a Massachusetts court. The court held that in order to sustain a lawsuit in Massachusetts, the defendant’s conduct must arise out of defendant’s conduct in the State, the defendant must purposefully avail themselves of the laws of the State, and the exercise of jurisdiction is reasonable. The court held that Marvel showing the Iron Man movies in the State without any further action was not enough to meet this test. The court stated that most of the relevant witnesses and documents in the case are in New York, not Massachusetts. Therefore, it was not reasonable for Marvel to be subject to jurisdiction in Massachusetts.

Since this case was not dismissed on the merits, plaintiff is free to re-file the case in a more appropriate venue, like New York. We shall wait to see if there is a sequel to this lawsuit.

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