home
Creating Daredevil (part 1)
J David Spurlock
3 July 2016
CREATING DAREDEVIL: WHO DID WHAT?
Patrick Ford To be a bit more specific re. the first section. The Lev
Gleason Daredevil stories were still protected by the first 28 year
term of copyright when Goodman discovered Lev Gleason had allowed the
Trademark on the name, logo, and costume design to lapse.
As long as it is continuously used a Trademark can last for ever.
However, if a Trademark is not used for a period of three years it is
considered abandoned. Lev Gleason went more than three years without
publishing or licensing anything to do with Daredevil, Martin Goodman
became aware of that and gained control of the Lev Gleason Trademark
for Daredevil.
J David Spurlock As well as trademark-wise, I think Goodman felt like
he was in the clear copyright-wise too (despite the 28 year term) as
Gleason was out of business. That would explain Ditko being told he
could use the old character if he wanted to.
Patrick Ford A costume ( a look) can be trademarked. I noticed this a
few years ago studying Warren publications. Jim Warren trademarked not
only the title CREEPY, but the image of Uncle Creepy.
https://trademarks.justia.com/771/11/uncle-creepy-77111839.html
Patrick Ford I've had correspondence with Lev Gleason's nephew Brett
Dakin who told me that Lev Gleason tried to legally challenge
Goodman's application for the Daredevil trademark. Gleason failed
because he had allowed the Daredevil trademark to become legally
abandoned. Brett's research on his uncle is awaiting publication. His
prior works include Another Quiet American: Stories of Life in Laos:
https://www.amazon.com/Another-Quiet-American-Stories-Life-ebook/dp/B0032FO7BI
Patrick Ford Reading this over again it occurs to me that I would not
agree with the following.
David writes, "Marvel's giving Wood so much free-reign autonomy indicates: "
Here's where I disagree.
Lee did not give Ditko, or Kirby, or Wood, "free-reign" he abused his
power as the person in charge of assignments to extort work from them
for which they were not paid and Lee was paid. Expecting a person to
do your job and then taking the money and credit is in no way "giving
free-reign." It's what I would call a kick-back or extortion.
And I don't believer the low sales of DAREDEVIL had anything to do
with Lee expecting Wood to write the stories while Lee collected the
writing money. There is not any doubt in my mind that if DAREDEVIL was
selling well Lee would still have expected Wood to write.
There is a substantial amount of evidence which indicates that Lee
expected (even demanded) that anyone who wanted an art assignment was
expected to write without being paid.
home