Sorey & Hoover filed suit against Netflix, Dark Horse Comics, and others for copyright infringement
Sorey & Gilliland filed suit against Netflix, Dark Horse Comics, and others for copyright infringement of the their client’s comic book villain. The firm has sued to protect their client’s creative artwork as depicted in a comic book series called Rogue Satellite Comics. In those comics, the firm’s clients depict many scenes with a striking similarity to scenes that much later appeared in the comic book and streaming series titled “The Umbrella Academy.” Most notably, Rogue Satellite Comics was the first to depict a villain, Kingfish, that was a fish, living in a fishbowl atop a humanoid body and wearing a crown. The Umbrella Academy comic adopted a similar character but replaced Kingfish’s cape with a duster and his crown with a bowler hat. While Netflix discarded the duster and the bowler, it kept the lead villain who is a fish living in a glass bowl atop a humanoid body. News of the suit made the rounds in a major Texas legal periodical, Texas Lawyer. https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2021/06/07/comic-book-writer-says-umbrella-academy-villain-was-his-idea/ (subscription required).
This is not the first time Sorey & Gilliland have filed a lawsuit to protect the rights of a solo artist against corporate giants, and it will not be the last. At Sorey & Gilliland, we take pride in never backing down from a fight.