Iron Man scores knock-out blow in a Boston court

A federal judge in Boston has tossed a copyright lawsuit against Marvel and Walt Disney because the Canadian brothers who brought it failed to prove their case had anything in particular to do with Massachusetts.

Brothers Ben and Ray Lai said the behemoth metal suits Tony Stark dons in the Iron Man movies was ripped off from their Radix comics, which they started distributing in 2001, and so sued in US District Court in Boston for as much money as a jury would find reasonable.

But the case will never make it to a jury, at least not here. In a ruling earlier this month, US District Court Judge Denise Caspar agreed with Marvel and Walt Disney to dismiss the suit because there was no valid reason for it to have been filed here.

Caspar rejected the Lais' argument that a Boston court would have jurisdiction because Marvel sells comic books here and Disney distributes movies here. She said the two companies are not based here and did not do anything different here than elsewhere. Also:

Horizon's owners' hour and a half shorter drive from Montreal to Boston rather than to New York City, ability to stay with friends in Boston and lack of connections with New York City are not especially compelling interests to justify jurisdiction.