The dispute over Red Sonja ended this afternoon as Paradox Entertainment and Red Sonja LLC reached an agreement on the second day of the trademark-infringement trial.
Red Sonja LLC, which owns the rights to Red Sonja — with a “j” — had filed a $5 million lawsuit in April 2006 accusing Paradox Entertainment of infringing on its trademark and attempting to create confusion in the marketplace. Paradox, which bought Conan and the entire Robert E. Howard library in 2006, owns the rights to Red Sonya — with a “y” — a character created by Howard in the 1930s.
Red Sonja is a character created in 1973 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for use in the Conan comics then published by Marvel. Red Sonya is Howard’s lesser-known pistol-packing Russian warrior from the 16th century.
According to the Wilmington, Del., News-Journal, Red Sonja LLC paid Paradox $1 for all rights to Red Sonya, so that now the company owns both characters — no matter how you spell the name. In return, Paradox paid Red Sonja LLC $1 for the exclusive print-publication rights to “The Shadow of the Vulture,” the single Howard short story in which Sonya appears.
The agreement also clarifies that Paradox owns the rights to the “Age of Hyboria,” the fictional era for the Conan stories. However, Red Sonja LLC may place their character in that setting.
Update: Paradox Entertainment’s official statement
January 29th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
How soon before we see a Sonja/Sonya crossover, then?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I would hav held out for at least $10
January 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
for only a dollar thats a good deal
January 29th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
“I’d buy that for a dollar!”
January 29th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
This reminds me of the episode of “Cheers” where Sam buys back the bar for a dollar, but he didn’t even have a dollar, so he had to borrow 88 cents, and they said “close enough”.
Anyhoo, sounds like another property for Dynamite Entertainment to make a series out of… unless Red Sonja LLC. has no intentions of letting them do so.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’m still confused about the whole thing.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
$1 Honestly I would have got in the mix for the liscense.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I just want to know how the Sonja & Conan rights ever got separated in the first place.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Obviously, it’s not that they BOUGHT the rights for a dollar! Since Paradox was using the name illegally, and Red Sonja LLC owns the character, the real settlement is that Paradox had to relinquish their rights to anything involving that character! That’s where the real money is anyway – not the one dollar “settlement.” The headline is a bit misleading…
January 29th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
It was silly in the beginning and silly in the end. Red Sonja LLC owns Red Sonja and Red Sonya, but Paradox owns “The Age of Hyboria” Universe (but Dynamite Entertainment and presumably Dark Horse can use it freely for their respective books).
Whatever…I need a drink now.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
“I just want to know how the Sonja & Conan rights ever got separated in the first place.”
The Howard estate sold the rights to Red Sonja in 1982.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
$1? Did anyone get a vibe of “Tading Places” with that?
January 29th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Whew. Well, at least Red Sonja can still adventure in Hyboria, that’s what I was worried about.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Because Red Sonja was never about of the Howard Estate, such as Conan and Hyboria, and the soviet adventuring character Red Sonya. Red Sonja was created for marvel comics set in Conan comics which marvel published through whoever owned the rights back then.
It seems a waste of tax money for something they so easily worked out.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The $1 going back and forth, I would guess is to establish that a contract is taking place. For copyright, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume the same is true for trademark, there is no transfer of rights without some kind of monetary transaction (ie, if publisher uses your work without paying, by definition you still control the copyright).
January 30th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Why did Paradox ever fight this in the first place?? RS always owned the trademark – period. Paradox was just asking for a lawsuit and they got one in spades – they were obviously trying to steal the character. And instead of settling it 2 years ago when they were sued… I mean how much did they waste on lawyers fighting a battle that was doomed from the start? Glad I don’t own stock in that company.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:15 am
…Paradox owns “The Age of Hyboria” Universe…
And thats presumably what they care about, with the Conan MMORPG coming up. I hear you can make more money off those than you can selling crack. Or Grit magazine.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:15 am
To Marionette: Likely never. Red SonYa was a character whose appearance set her in the 16th century. Red SonJa is a character whose appearance is placed in a far-distant prehistoric, mythical era of some 12-15 thousand years ago. (Any crossing over of the characters would likely involve a mystical/magical premise as done in the Spider-Man/Red Sonja crossover.)
To Davidlevack: Red Sonya is NOT a “Soviet” character–she’s a RUSSIAN. There IS a difference.
Also, I don’t see how it’s a “waste of tax money” since the court personnel get paid for doing something, whether they’re in the court dealing with a case or not.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:43 am
George: “The headline is a bit misleading… ”
I liked the headline. The $1 aspect was an interesting legal wrinkle. And the headline didn’t really lead me anywhere untrue, I didn’t have a guess what “$1 swap” meant until I read the article.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I bet their lawyers are pissed. They’re only making 50¢ apiece from this!
January 30th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Just to clarify, the dollar is a legal formality. Contracts that contain no monetary transaction tend to NOT be legally binding because without money changing hands “worth” — a necessary staple of transaction law — is difficult to define.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:50 am
W.T.F. total waste of TIME!
January 30th, 2008 at 7:51 am
If Roy Thomas and Barry Smith created Red Sonja (under work for hire), won’t that make Red Sonja the property of Marvel.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:37 am
No, because the rights to the Roy Thomas incarnation of the character was given to the Robert E Howard estate by Marvel back in the early eighties. The estate then later onsold those rights when an offer was made to purchase them, I guess not really seeing much value in holding onto the rights themselves, and instead going for the quick cash option.
After all you’ve got to remember, though Red Sonja was a popular supporting character in the Conan books coming out of Marvel at the time, she was unable to sustain her own title, with each attempt to launch her own book doing very poorly sales wise, leading to two short lived solo series, and a couple of, also quite poor selling, one shots and limited series.
It’s really only been under dynamite that Red Sonja has found any sort of solo comic success…
January 30th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Since there’s a movie coming about R.E.H.’s Solomon Kane and perhaps some comics as well the original Russian version of the character, Sonya [with a y] would fit perfectly in his world. If memory serves Shadow of the Vulture was set during the siege of VIENA by the Turks. That was I think in the 1580′s though I’de have to look it up as I believe the Turks tried more than once.Though Kane was English he was a bit of a globe trotter so a visit to central or eastern Europe would not be difficult. Marvel set him there on several occaissions during the 70′s.I suppose Kane and Sonya never met mainly because he didn’t appear in comics until after she’d been adapted to fit into the Hyborian age.Of course Roy Thomas’ Sonja will surely remain the more familiar and marketable character of the two.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I hereby offer to sell the rights to the name “Bullj” for a dollar and a cupcake.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
So… That means no Red Sonja in Dark Horse’s Conan series. That’s a shame, because I really looking forward to seeing her in the new Conan series when they first announced at the letter pages of an issue.
Also I’m sick of that chain mail bikini look (I know it’s classic, but silly). She needs more realistic wardrobe, man… Give her a decent armor. She looks like a fashion model, not a warrior. I know that sexy female lead characters attract some readers but she’ll be much better with a darker and meaner look.
I also hated Janissa character. That’s the only lame thing they made in Dark Horse Conan series. It’s too obvious that she’s a fill-in for Red Sonja. I hope she gets her head cut off.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
“though Red Sonja was a popular supporting character in the Conan books coming out of Marvel at the time, she was unable to sustain her own title, with each attempt to launch her own book doing very poorly sales wise, leading to two short lived solo series, and a couple of, also quite poor selling, one shots and limited series.”
You forgot the really awful movie
If anyone “won” in this case, I’d say it was Paradox – they get the “Age of Hyboria”, and they keep the original pulp story in which Red Sonya was created, which is what was really important to them.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Well… I guess everyone is happy with this outcome..? :S
Nice to hear that it sounds like they could sort it all out with what was basically a gentleman’s hand-shake.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Paradox lost – they already had the “age of Hyboria” thing – was that even in question? Paradox spent probably a small fortune on lawyers, and got nothing but the well earned animosity of the Sonja people, a rep for over reaching their rights, and they LOST the one thing they did have at stake – the rights to “shadow of a vulture” – well done gentlemen
enjoy that dollar
January 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Are you bloody daft, Ethan? I guess so.
It says Paradox is retaining their rights to the “Shadow of a Vulture”..
January 30th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
At least I can read Predabot – from the conan website –
http://conan.com/f_redsonya_settlement.shtml
- “RS has acquired all of Paradox’s rights in Robert E. Howard’s short story The Shadow of the Vulture and Paradox has acquired an exclusive license to reprint Robert E. Howard’s prose story The Shadow of the Vulture.”
They lost the rights and all they can do is reprint the short story – no movie, no comic, no characters.
Been hittin your head on the short bus there Predabot?
January 31st, 2008 at 9:25 am
I’m not quite clear on who the players are here.
I get that they are named “Paradox Entertainment” and “Red Sonja LLC”
And since Paradox owns the rights to the “Age of Hyboria – which was created by Robert E Howard and the setting for all of Howard’s Conan stories, with their related characters – Is Paradox Entertainment just another name for what most fans call “The Howard Estate”?
As for Red Sonya, she only appears in one story and Paradox retains the rights to it. So I’m thinking that the character is still their’s.
But they gave up rights to the name “Red Sonya” to Red Sonja LLC – which can then go after anyone else who attempts to use the name which would create confusion with their character whose name sounds identical to us. I don’t think they have the right or the intent to infringe on the Red Sonya character, thus ruling out cross-overs, but they have the right to defend Red Sonja from imitators using alternative spellings.
Besides – in the Marvel comics Conan would call her “Sonya” which would really get her mad about his mispronounciation of her name – which indicates that there was some intent that Sonja and Sonya be pronounced differently – but at the same time muddies the waters about which name is which, since she was called by both in those stories, just depending on which character was saying it.
So is LLC something owned by Dynamite, by Roy Thomas, or just someone who bought the rights with no hand in creation of the character?
January 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am
“Is Paradox Entertainment just another name for what most fans call ‘The Howard Estate’?”
Paradox bought the entire Robert E. Howard library of properties in 2006.
“As for Red Sonya, she only appears in one story and Paradox retains the rights to it. So I’m thinking that the character is still their’s.”
No, Red Sonja LLC now owns Red Sonya, but Paradox retains the print-publication rights to “The Shadow of the Vulture.” I presume that’s so Paradox can publish, or license, “the complete works” of Howard for print collections.
“So is LLC something owned by Dynamite, by Roy Thomas, or just someone who bought the rights with no hand in creation of the character?”
The last one. The Howard estate sold the rights to Red Sonja in 1982.
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