Well, this is awkward: Dynamite is being sued for Trademark Infringement and Unfair Competition over its Warlord of Mars and Lord of The Jungle titles by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the company that represents the estate of the writer who created the two characters. The Wall Street Journal reports that ERB, Inc. was originally asked by Dynamite for permission for their series, but such permission was never given; the company would later team with Disney subsidiary Marvel for a series of John Carter comics in support of Disney’s John Carter movie, released next month.
The original novels in both the John Carter and Tarzan series are public domain works in the U.S., although as the suit points out, this isn’t the case internationally; ERB, Inc. additionally owns both copyright and trademark for all material published after 1924, which constitutes a sizable amount for both characters further complicating matters. The lawsuit claims that ERB, Inc. “has no control over the quality of [Dynamite]‘s comic book series” and therefore, “ERB’s extremely valuable reputation may be permanently damaged.”
In addition to Dynamite Entertainment, Nick Barucci’s other companies Dynamic Forces and Savage Tales Entertainment are named as defendants in the suit.
April 24th, 2013 at 12:04 am
The original novels in both the John Carter and Tarzan series are public domain works in the U.S., although as the suit points out, this isn’t the case internationally; ERB, Inc. additionally owns both copyright and trademark for all material published after 1924, which constitutes a sizable amount for both characters further complicating matters