The news that Marvel and Fox were suing Sony Pictures over the release date for Sony's superhero comedy Zoom (and the comedy's similarities to the X-Men) didn't surprise many in Hollywood where Marvel has a reputation for being quick on the legal draw (see 'Fox & Marvel Sue Sony').  But litigation can come back and bite you if you lose, a hard lesson that Marvel may learn at the hands of the WWE, the premier professional wrestling league. 

The legal dispute in question had its roots in 1997 when Toy Biz, which merged with Marvel in 1998, signed an agreement with the WCW (World Championship Wrestling, then owned by Turner Broadcasting) to make action figures based on the WCW roster of wrestlers including Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Macho Man Randy Savage among others.  In 2001 the WWE (then the WWF) purchased the WCW from Turner.  After plans for a TV series featuring the WCW wrestlers fell through, the WWE stopped supplying Toy Biz with the information needed to create action figures and Toy Biz/Marvel sued the WWE in 2002 for $75 million.

Marvel lost the initial case and a just concluded appeal process, in which the judge concurred with the original judicial finding that the Toy Biz/WCW contract did not grant licensing rights to the named wrestlers outside the context of a WCW program.  Now lawyers for the WWE are back in court in Atlanta asking for a judgment of $1.25 million to cover the legal fees and costs incurred by the WWE during three-and-one-half years of litigation.  Live by the sword...