] LOS ANGELES (AP) - Marvel Enterprises Inc. is suing two
] firms behind a computer superhero role-playing game it
] claims allows players to make virtual characters that are
] too similar to ``The Hulk,'' ``X-Men'' and other heroes
] in the comic book company's stable.
]
] The lawsuit claims South Korea-based NCSoft Corp. and San
] Jose-based Cryptic Studios Inc. violated Marvel's
] trademark characters in their game ``City of Heroes.''
] Marvel seeks unspecified damages and an injunction
] against the two companies to stop using its characters.

As I understand it, NCSoft didn't create a Marvel character in the game, but they do give players the abilities to design their own characters, and a couple of those characters seem to be obvious copies of Marvel characters.

In my own products, the way we usually deal with this is that if someone creates something which is an obvious ripoff of someone else's work, we tell them to zap it and start over. But that requires a fair amount of manpower to chase after customers, follow up complaints, and make judgment calls about what is and is not copyrighted material. For a much larger game with powerful and easy to use creation tools, that gets much more difficult.

It'll be interesting to see how this works through the courts.

Marvel Sues NcSoft over Characters in 'City of Heroes' MMORPG