Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, patent, spider-man, stan lee, Stephen Kimble

US Supreme Court Quotes Stan Lee When Deciding Spider-Man Patent Case

This morning the Supreme Court in the USA ruled on a case regarding rights payments to the toy, the Web Blaster, that lets kids create something akin to Spider-Man's comic book webbing, and licensed out by Marvel Enterprises. Patented by Stephen Kimble in 1990, the court decided against him.

Case Collard, partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney who focuses on intellectual property disputes and developing strategies for safeguarding intellectual property rights tells us "This means Marvel doesn't have to pay any more royalties. The rule that you cannot contract for royalties for a patent after its expiration remains in place. Attorneys drafting patent licenses (which includes nearly all patent litigations which settle) need to draft carefully, paying special attention to the term of the patent and the term of the royalties.  There are many creative and legal ways to extend payments past the expiration of the patent, but they cannot be based on patent royalties," Collard says.

But the opinion of the court's majority, as expressed by Justice Elena Kagen, was rather creative in itself. Cutting and pasting from the court's conclusion, she did a little quoting of her own.

What we can decide, we can undecide. But stare decisis teaches that we should exercise that authority sparingly. Cf. S. Lee and S. Ditko, Amazing Fantasy No. 15: "Spider- Man," p. 13 (1962) ("[I]n this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility"). Finding many reasons for staying the stare decisis course and no "special justification" for departing from it, we decline Kimble's invitation to overrule Brulotte.

She also quoted the line form the famous cartoon theme song when describing the item in question as something that "does whatever a spider can".

Is this the first time the Supreme Court has quoted Stan Lee? What are the odds on "Excelsior" being next?

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