Horizon Comics company co-founded by Ben and Ray Lai has once again sued Marvel and Disney for Iron Man & Ant-man costume designs. Horizon Comics has published Montreal (a city in the Canadian Province of Quebec) based comics. Ben Lai is a comic book penciler who worked on series such as Sigil, Radix, Thor, and X-Men. Ray Lai usually inks the work of Ben Lai.
The brothers are famous for their controversy in 2002 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when they use an image of Raidx 1 to win a $50 million research contract and it helped them to establish an Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Later, they apologize for using images from Radix 1 and the brothers also accepted their apology.
But again the images from their comic Radix were used and this time by Marvel. So, they decided no to let go this time.
First Lawsuit Filed in 2015 against Marvel
From 2001 to 2002, the Lai Brothers have published the Image Comic Book series they named Radix. This comic book has 4 volumes. This comic book is featured with the art of armor designs. The brothers feel that Marvel stole their design of the suit worn by Caliban(Radix Character) was very similar to the costume used in IRON MAN 3.
They filed a lawsuit in April 2015, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts but the plaintiffs are based in Canada.
In 2019, Marvel ended up winning the lawsuit as U.S District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken finds that there is no virtual evidence in the record, indicating to the poster design of IRON MAN 3 involved in the drawing would have seen the Caliban drawing, according to ComicBook.
Eventually, this lawsuit was dismissed and the Lai brothers do not have legal fees to continue their lawsuit.
New Lawsuit against Marvel and Disney
This time Lai brothers allege that the designs were repeatedly stolen by Marvel and Disney Entertainment in their movies- IRON MAN, ANT-MAN, AVENGERS films. They allege that Marvel uses their design without the consent of Horizon Comic and The Lai brothers.
So to put an end to these deliberate and persistent infringements, they demand to pay compensatory and punitive damages to the plaintiff in addition to Horizon costs and lawyer fees (via CTV News).
According to a new lawsuit, Marvel continues to infringe their designs in Iron Man appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, and End Game. They also claim infringement between Ant-Man and the Wasp character (military character) in Horizons Radix 2.
The lawsuit states that neither the Lai brothers nor the Horizon have been applied for the reproduction of their work. In addition, they also stated that in their previous legal action to enforce its rights in part of the works. Marvel infringed their Horizons Copyright.
The Lai brothers stated that Marvel knew about Radix
- They have worked for Marvel on several issues of Thor in 2003 with writer Dan Jurgens and also they have worked with Tony Lee and Mark Millar on X-Men comics in 2004.
- In the first lawsuit, they stated that they personally distribute the Radiax promotional materials at Marvel before the MIT controversy.
- They can also get to know about it by MIT controversy.
What about the plot of Iron Man?
Don’t worry, the plot of Iron Man is not like Radix. As the series revolves around the advancement of technology rather than the human factor. And in Radix, the main character wants to know about her past and the world she lives in.
Through all this, we can summarise that the case can go in favor of Marvel and Disney as the previous case goes. If Horizon comics was not able to prove the infringes of designs. Let’s hope who so ever is the artist credit goes to him. I hope you like this information. If any query let us know by sending your query in the comment box.