>>85110272>This could kill Archie Comics.Doubtful.
Penders or not, nobody ever heard of Narrative Arc Entertainment. They have no more money to pursue this case than you do; Archie, if necessary, can borrow. In addition, Scott Fulop is claiming infringement *during the period in which he worked for Archie as an editor*. The first test of the legitimacy of his claims is the question of why, as an editor working for Archie comics on the comics he claimed infringed his work, he did not in 16 years take any action. Resignation, legal action, complaining to his boss - it's on him to prove that he acted reasonably there, not Archie.
Secondly, Penders sued SEGA, and SEGA had Penders' case dismissed, twice, because it was vexatious. The lawsuit that Penders actually won was Archie Comics' own lawsuit to try and prevent him from using what they saw as their characters; they didn't have to stop publishing Sonic comics (because they still own that license, as SEGA still own the character and the contract between the two companies is unchanged) so they still have that income. They presumably sued because there was some notion that these characters were fan favorites and the line would suffer - well, it's been a couple of years, so if sales were going to suffer they'd have done so by now.
Thirdly, the suit that Penders brought against Archie was never decided by the courts - it was settled. That's a private agreement between the two. It can't be used in the way that a prior judgement can - stare decisis does not apply there. So if this goes to trial by jury, Fulop is going to look like an idiot in front of that jury as he tries to explain why even in the past 4 years he hasn't sued of what he claims is a major infringement of his copyrights. "I'm poor" doesn't cut it; and he has to make the entire argument himself. There's no case law from Penders to rely on here.
Finally, legal action isn't necessarily very expensive, even if you lose and damages are awarded.
