Archie Takes Penders to Court Over Character Copyrights

I’m sure you all remember Ken Penders’ attempt to copyright everything he did while working for Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic this summer. Since his initial announcement, there has been very little visible legal movement between Penders and Archie, aside from Archie’s claims Penders’ suit didn’t make it past the first phone call from Archie’s lawyers, and Penders’ claims to the contrary.

Now, for the first time in a while, we have some genuine legal activity between the two parties: Archie is now taking Penders to court. Filed on November 23rd, the case is challenging the constitutionality of state statutes. That means this case will be challenging the laws that allowed Penders to file his copyrights. This case will be done in Federal Court and can, conceivably, go all the way up to the Supreme Court should either party want to take it that far.

We’ve contacted Archie for comment on this law suit, and we’ll let you know if Penders comments on this via his forums. Until then, you can see the case details of Archie Comic Publications, Inc v Penders.

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