Marvel Entertainment wins legal battle for rights to ‘Ghost Rider’ character

Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 10:06 am , filed under News by George

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The legal battle between the Marvel Entertainment and comic book author Gary Friedrich has come to a close for now. On 28^th December, Wednesday, a United States District Court judge in New York has ruled that the rights to the ‘Ghost Rider’ character belong to Marvel and definitely not to the writer dreamed the motorcycle-riding hero up.

The Judge Katherine Forrest has stated that Friedrich has relinquished his rights to ‘Ghost Rider’ when he cashed the checks from the Marvel Entertainment for the initial creation for the character. Additionally, she pointed out that the writer signed a second contract in 1978 that grants Marvel all rights of any kind and nature in and to the Work.

Moreover, Forrest said that it is unnecessary to travel down the rabbit hole of whether the character and work were in fact originally created separate and apart from the Marvel and whether they are a work for hire of whether during an initial conversation in which Friedrich obtained consent to proceed with the project that eventually became the Work.

Friedrich began considering the legal action against Marvel in 2004 when he learned that there were plans for new uses of the ‘Ghost Rider’ character that also includes the movies. ‘Ghost Rider’ movie is first released in February 2007 Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes.

A second ‘Ghost Rider’ movie, ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’, will open wide the United States on 17^th February, 2012. It is already known that Nicholas Cage is reprising his role as Johnny Blaze a.k.a. the Ghost Rider with Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor serving as directors. In this sequel, Johnny Blaze finds himself being recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy from the devil.

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