Marvel Entertainment, Inc., NCsoft Corporation, NC Interactive, Inc., and Cryptic Studios have amicably settled all claims brought by Marvel as well as counterclaims raised by NCsoft.  Just over a year ago Marvel sued the companies behind the popular City of Heroes MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) charging that the City of Heroes game allowed players to create characters that were too similar to Marvel superheroes and in some cases even appropriate the names of Marvel characters (see 'Marvel Sues Over City of Heroes').

Earlier this year a Texas judge threw out a number of Marvel's claims and the settlement appears to be a clear victory for NCsoft.  A portion of the settlement agreement that was released on Wednesday includes the following: 'The parties' settlement allows them all to continue to develop and sell exciting and innovative products, but does not reduce the players' ability to express their creativity in making and playing original and exciting characters.  Therefore, no changes to City of Heroes or City of Villains character creation engine are part of the settlement.'  Score one for NCsoft and for freedom of expression on the Internet.

The popular City of Heroes MMORPG has spawned a number of products including a comic book series from Top Cow, an RPG from Eden Studios and a CCG from AEG.