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Case file s1767 · Literature and art · 1994
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1994
Jack Kirby: Jack-Kirby art-of-jack-kirby wyman-skaar
Jack Kirby. Susan Skaar. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
6 February 1994
Place
Thousand Oaks, California · United States
Field
comics artist · Visual art and architecture on the timeline
Legal tradition
US copyright law (1909 Act; section 304 termination rights) · Common law
Historical event
Marvel Comics' creation of its characters, 1958 to 1963
Religion
Jack Kirby: Jewish (recorded as 20th-century American Jews, Jewish American comics artists, Jewish American comics writers on Wikipedia)
Literature and artPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Jack Kirby's heirs served 45 copyright termination notices on Marvel; the Second Circuit ruled his work was for hire in 2013 and the case settled in 2014

Jack Kirby drew Marvel comics from 1958 to 1963 under the 1909 Copyright Act. His heirs, including Lisa, Neal, Barbara and Susan Kirby, sent Marvel 45 notices to terminate his transfer of rights in those comics. Marvel Worldwide, Marvel Characters and MVL Rights sued. A federal court granted summary judgment to Marvel. On 8 August 2013 the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, holding the Kirby works were made for hire, so Marvel owned the copyrights and the notices were ineffective. The Second Circuit said it applied the "instance and expense" test. The heirs petitioned the US Supreme Court (No. 13-1178). Marvel opposed review. The heirs settled with Marvel in 2014 before the Court acted; the terms were not disclosed†. In 1985 Marvel had returned only about 1,900 or 2,100 of an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 pages of Kirby original art after he publicly criticized the company. In 2017 Kirby was named a Disney Legend.

What the law took from it

Who owns a creator's work is fixed by the contract and the statute in force when it was made, not by who made it.

Sources
  1. leagle.comCourt record
  2. loeb.comPress
  3. legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.comPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Jack Kirby's heirs served 45 copyright termination notices on Marvel; the Second Circuit ruled his work was for hire in 2013 and the case settled in 2014,” story s1767, https://www.celebrity.estate/jack-kirby-1994, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artPostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States