Marvel Characters, Inc., Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellee v. Joseph H. Simon, Defendant-Counter-Claimant-Appellant

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to examine the scope of the termination provision of the Copyright Act of 1976 (the “1976 Act”), 17 U.S.C. § 304(c). Section 304(c) grants authors (or if deceased, their statutory heirs) an inalienable right to terminate a grant in a copyright fifty-six years after the original grant “notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.” 17 U.S.C. § 304(c)(3),(5). The termination provision, however, has one salient exception: copyright grants in works created for hire cannot be terminated. 17 U.S.C. § 304(c).

The question of first impression raised…