Marvel, NCsoft settle lawsuit

By Ellie Gibson Published 15 December, 2005

No changes to City of Heroes.

NCsoft has settled its lawsuit with Marvel Entertainment in a deal which will not force the publisher to make any changes to its popular PC MMORPG, City of Heroes, after all.

Marvel filed suit against NCsoft last November, claiming that CoH players were creating characters in the likeness of Marvel superheroes and thereby infringing copyright. It marked the first time a publisher had been sued over content created by players and, had Marvel won the case, could have set an important precedent.

But under the terms of the undisclosed settlement, NCsoft is not required to make any changes to the character creation options in City of Heroes or its expansion, City of Villains.

"The parties' settlement allows them all to continue to develop and sell exciting and innovative products, but does not reduce the players' ability to express their creativity in making and playing original and exciting characters," NCsoft said in a statement.

"The parties have agreed that protecting intellectual property rights is critically important and each will continue aggressively to protect such rights in accordance with all applicable laws.

"All parties agree that this case was never about monetary issues and that the fans of their respective products and characters are the winners in this settlement."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Roamer #1 6 years ago

    Good thing for future games of any sort, I guess. However, any fantasy mmorpg containing players called 'Gandolf', 'Gandalfir' etc. should be banned.

  • optimusprym8 #2 6 years ago

    yeah if I see one more "Legolas Elfking" in Guild Wars I'm gonna scream!

  • brokenkey #3 6 years ago

    guild wars only allows unique character names, so there would only ever be one Legolas Elfking

    /pedant

  • jellyhead #4 6 years ago

    It must be 'leet-speak hell in guild wars then! 0_0

    So how are they going to stop you making a Wolverine-a-like character without limiting your creativity?

  • Freek #5 6 years ago

    They're not, NCsoft just paid Marvel lots of cash to make them go away.

  • optimusprym8 #6 6 years ago

    "All parties agree that this case was never about monetary issues and that the fans of their respective products and characters are the winners in this settlement."

    No large amounts of cash were involved.

    "/pedant" - Oi that's my job! OK, or variations of Legolas Elfking... :p :roll:
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/05 @ 11:11

  • The_Aardvark #7 6 years ago

    Marvel characters, unlike those from most fiction, are registered trade marks which is why you can't call your hero Wolv3rin3 but you can call your elf L3gola2.

    NCsoft are pretty damn rigorous at banning people which copyright infringing names or appearances. It wouldn't surprise me if the payout was fairly small or non-existent as it's not clear that they were infringing copyright.

  • Freek #8 6 years ago

    It may not have been the main reason but that is how it's settled, that's why there's the "we can't talk about it" clause added. I give you lots of cash, license the wolverine look, copyright protected, we all go on our merry way and nobody gets any bad press.
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/05 @ 11:19

  • BootLace #9 6 years ago

    "was never about monetary issues", but cash is always a nice bonus :).

  • linksdad #10 6 years ago

    Could it have been an agreement that NCsoft wouldnt sue Marvels ass when they bring out their city of heros rip off (oops did i say rip off, err I meant tribute) mmorpg in the next few years?

  • Glitch #11 6 years ago

    Marvel the stupid wankers, some companies need to get a life and solve their own issues, shit like this is what ruins the gaming industry.

  • kangarootoo #12 6 years ago

    @Roamer

    "Good thing for future games of any sort, I guess"

    Actually an out of court settlement sets no precident, so Marvel could still try and sue someone else over a similar issue. Had it gone to court and Marvel lost, they would have problems bringing successful cases of this type in the future. So it was probably in their interest to settle for that reason and in NCsoft's interest because of potentially huge legal bills.

    Thats wot I fink anyway.