In what many will read to be a light-heartedly penned opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court, the impact of the court’s decision in Kimble v. Marvel Enterprises will endure.
There, the creator of a Spider-Man-like toy “for shooting foam” from a glove worn by the user sought to enforce a royalty deal he struck with Marvel. The only problems were that his patent covering the invention had expired, and a prior 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brulotte v. Thys, bars any payments of royalties past a patent’s expiration date.
