There was a real drought in the Siegel v. Warner Brothers Entertainment (aka the Superman case), which was previously covered in posts about the general Superman copyright issues and the Superman alter-ego theory. Now, a recent ruling held in the case that the Siegel family recaptured certain rights to the Superman character. Specifically, although ownership in Superman material published from 1938 to 1943 remains with Warner Brothers, the Siegels have retained copyrights to the following material:

1. Action Comics No. 1;
2. Action Comics No. 4;
3. Superman No. 1, pages three through six, and
4. the initial two weeks’ worth of Superman daily newspaper strips.

The four sets of material mentioned above includes Superman’s origin story, his parents Jor-El and Lora, infant Superman, and other story elements. The materials from 1938 to 1943 includes “kryptonite,” Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, and Superman’s ability to fly.
Note that this dispute originated when the Siegels sought to terminate a grant to Warner of Superman copyrights. What this decision ultimately means is that the termination requests are valid, and all interests that Warner (and by default, DC) has in these materials will expired at the end of the original grant (i.e., 2013). Thus, Warner will have to negotiate and pay to use any of the copyrighted material after that.

1. Siegel v. Warner Bros Entertainment 8/12/09 Opinion