In the wake of many other cases, involving, during the last decades, both the famous Detective Comics (better known as DC) and Marvel Enterprises publishers, and bringing to court the historical origins of cartoon characters (among the many, see the famous “Siegel and Shuster / v DC” case, regarding copyrights on Superman, whose outcomes are still uncertain, due to conflicting decisions between the various courts – and whose latest installment has been filed, recently, by the heirs of the cited artists), in January, the District Court for the Southern District of New York City has rejected the appeal by cartoonist Gary Friedrich against Marvel Enterprises, establishing the full rights of the latter on the comic book character “Ghost Rider”, also protagonist of a recent movie and of an upcoming sequel.

Friedrich, well-known author in the comics world, began working at Marvel in
the ’70s, and, like many of his colleagues, had the “misfortune” to sign a receipt of payment, proposed by the publisher around 1978 as a condition to the payment itself, thus relinquishing to Marvel any and all rights regarding characters and the stories produced during the period of employment.

Perhaps oblivious to that fact, in the wake of the popularity gained by his character in 2004, the author sued Marvel, claiming to have created the character with the intention to hand over all its rights of exploitation to Skywald Publications, publisher of some his books in those years, but had not been able to accomplish such assignment, since the publishing house shut down in 1975. At the same time, Friedrich said he had signed the 1978 agreement without even realizing it, due to its well-known problems of alcoholism.

The goal of his 2004 law case was, of course, to get back some of the profits
arising from the first movie about the character, staged by Nicholas Cage, and
released in theaters in 2007. Having failed the first attempt in front of the East St. Louis – Illinois Court, Friedrich sued once again Marvel in the Southern District of New York, to achieve some of the revenues deriving from the sale of comic books, toys, cartoons, movies and any other kind of Marvel-branded merchandise, related to the flaming biker character.
The District Court of New York, however, has thoroughly reviewed all circumstances against his claims, exposed in the counter-lawsuit filed by Marvel Enterprises (now a division of The Walt Disney Company, following the notorious acquisition occurred in 2009), and dismissed Friedrich’s claims, indeed condemning him to pay $ 17,000 to Marvel, for the unauthorized Ghost Rider merchandising he has illegally and independently produced and sold, during the last years.

All industry analysts have commented the case, pointing out the irony of the
situation: if Friedrich really had sold “Ghost Rider” to Skywald instead of Marvel, not only the character would not have achieved the fame it lives today, but neither would such an acquisition have avoided the bankruptcy of the independent horror publisher.”