Achi news desk-
Montreal comic book artist Ray Lai said no matter the time, effort or legal expense, he and his brother Ben will defend their creation, even if it’s against a force as powerful as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
“If you come up with an original idea, it’s your job to protect it, and if you don’t, maybe you shouldn’t do it anymore,” the artist told CTV News.
The Lai brothers are involved in a legal battle against Marvel and Disney, who they say stole design elements in the movie versions featuring the characters Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
A recently filed abuse of process petition alleges that industry goons have tried to delay or delay their copyright infringement case using deceptive tactics.
“It appears that the defendants are acting with the intention of drowning out the plaintiff’s procedures and documentation and thus exhausting them financially,” the request states. “In addition to the unnecessary steps that the plaintiffs are taking [Lai brothers] They had to resort to… the plaintiff had to deal with a number of unnecessary objections and unreasonable positions of the defendants.”
Since the proceedings began in 2021, the Lai brothers’ attorney, Julie Desrosiers, said Marvel has tried to delay the case, resisted impeachment of key witnesses and tried to bury the attorneys in untitled documents, all while raising their clients’ fees. and delaying the case unnecessarily.
“We realized that they did some things that misled the court and misled us about the revenue and profits that come from these films in Canada,” Desrosiers said. “We decided to file a request for misuse of the proceedings so that the Lai brothers could return part of the fees they spent in the fight against these proceedings.”
The request seeks nearly $180,000 to reimburse the Lai brothers for legal fees incurred.
Comic book artist Ben and Ray Lai of Montreal claim that elements of their Radix comic designs (left) were used in Marvel’s Iron Man 3 suit and the following images. The brothers are suing Marvel and Disney. (court document)
“I don’t want to sound cliche and say it’s our baby, but when you start doing something, you have to if you really believe in it, you have to go all the way,” Ray Lai said. “You can’t just say, ‘Well, you know, somebody’s taking it, I’ll just start over,’ and then everybody just moves on [taking it].”
The brothers claim in their original suit that Marvel used designs from the Lai brothers’ Radix series in the Iron Man and Ant-Man costumes for Marvel’s blockbuster movies.
The brothers are asking for compensation and/or “amazing profits obtained as a result of the violation, in an amount to be determined after a full investigation.” They also asked the court to grant Marvel and Disney “a permanent injunction to end this willful and continuing infringement.”
Copy work from scratch
The Lai brothers began creating comics in 1995 and quickly made a name for themselves in the industry, being hired by CrossGen Comics before returning to Montreal to develop the Radix series, published by Image Comics from 2001 to 2002.
The joy of seeing their work in print was coupled with the frustration of discovering a harsh reality in the industry.
“Right from the first issue, we had MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) copying our work,” Ray told Ey.
Professor Edwin L. Thomas said he unknowingly used the brothers’ photo in a 2002 research proposal on the future soldier.
He posted an apology on MIT’s website after speaking with the brothers.
“If I had known this was your work, I would not have used it,” he wrote. “MIT strongly supports copyright and deeply regrets the use of the image without permission or credit. I am deeply sorry that this happened; it will not happen again.”
Thomas explained in his apology that his team decided to include a drawing of what the soldier of the future might look like and included one of the Lai brothers’ characters.
“I didn’t know until after your lawyer contacted MIT in late April that the photo was probably based on your character,” Thomas said. As soon as we heard about it, I removed her from the Soldier Nanotechnology Institute. web pages, informed all involved not to use the image for any purpose, and MIT also ordered that the image be removed from all MIT websites.”
Shortly after the MIT scandal, the brothers were fired by Marvel, where they worked for about a year before returning to Montreal to work on their own comics.
When the brothers saw the Iron Man 3 poster, Ray said they immediately recognized their work.
“I immediately said, well, that’s it, that’s a copy,” Ray said. “And the interesting thing is that we know a lot of the people who were at Marvel.”
Ray and Ben worked with many of the designers who worked on the films, and Marvel also knew about the MIT case, further fueling their desire to ensure their work was protected.
“When they hired us, they knew MIT had copied us,” Lai said. “So now they’re copying us again.”
Other films featuring Ant-Man and the Wasp are also part of the brothers’ case.
Original images from the Ant-Man comic series (left) followed by one from the Lai brothers’ Radix series (middle) and images from Marvel’s Endgame and Ant-Man and the Wasp (right) are the source of a copyright infringement case before the courts. (court document)
After the cases were dismissed in the US, the Lai brothers filed a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court.
All claims have not yet been proven in court.
The Quebec law firm representing Disney/Marvel, Rubik, did not respond to multiple CTV News requests for comment. Marvel is defending the lawsuit in court.
“There’s no point in creating if you can’t protect”
For the Lai brothers, the grueling legal proceedings, while frustrating, are worth going through.
“I think, even at the time when MIT was copying us, the important thing I thought was there’s no point in creating if you can’t protect your intellectual property because that’s the most important thing,” Ray said. “It’s great to be an artist, it’s great to put things out there and people can appreciate it, but if you can’t defend your work.”
The original comic version of the Wasp (left), Horizon’s Radix comic design (center), and Marvel’s design for the movie ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’. (court document)
The same is true for the company that the Lai brothers are suing.
Marvel filed a lawsuit against four artists over copyright in Iron Man, Ant-Man and Captain Marvel, and settled the suit in 2023.
“They own their intellectual property, and they will do everything in their power to protect it,” Ray told Ey. “And if we can’t protect it, then there’s no point in just making work so that other people can exploit it… I think that’s why it’s just a big part of being a creator.”
