Marvel looks at bright side of judge's ruling

GameSpy gets reaction from Marvel to yesterday's announcement that the judge had dismissed more than half of the company's claims against the makers of the popular City of Heroes video game.

"We're very happy with the judge's ruling because he upheld every one of our copyright infringement claims," Marvel's general counsel, John Turitzin, told the website. He shrugged off the dismissed allegations as trademark claims that were less significant in the lawsuit.

In response to the question of how [games publisher] NCsoft could be responsible for content created by end-users, Turitzin said, "We believe that the game encourages the … infringement, therefore they (NCsoft) have some obligation to monitor the game and design (the game) so infringement is not possible." He also acknowledged the intense interest in the case. "We're delighted to have people interested in comics; pursuing their passion for comic book characters," he said, "… our characters are our business. We can't have people infringing on them." While Turitzin would not comment on any settlement strategy, he did say that "If NCsoft is interested in talking; we'd be interested in talking to them."

Newsarama has a breakdown of the dismissed claims, and those allowed to stand.