According to Variety the ongoing Siegel/DC/Time Warner battle for Superboy took another step at the end of March when Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, in a summary judgement found that Smallville may be infringing upon the copyright to Superboy which are, according to the ruling held by Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson, the wife and daughter of the late Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel.

More importantly, in the summary judgment, which was made March 23rd, Judge Lew found that the Siegels had successfully recaptured the Superboy rights as of November 17th, 2004. Technically, and according to Lew’s ruling, the Siegels have owned the character of Superboy since that time, and following that through, would be due a portion of the profits generated by the show since then.

Lew denied a request from Warner Bros. for a ruling that Smallville does not, in fact, infringe upon the Superboy copyrights. Warner Bros. says it “respectfully disagrees” with the ruling, and will pursue an appeal.

Though the ruling may sound impressive, it hinges on the word “may.” Whether or not Smallville does infringe upon the Superboy copyrights still needs to be settled. Well – as settled as these things can be settled, which normally means appeal after appeal after appeal.

The ruling came at the Siegel’s request when they filed for a partial summary judgment, rather than a ruling on copyright infringement, which Lew said in his ruling would call for a “detailed factual comparison.” Lew did agree that there had been enough facts presented to the court to convince it that the lead character in Smallville is, in fact, Superboy.

Warner, as it had done in answering the Seigels’ complaint in late 2004, asserted that the Siegel’s complaint claims infringement on the costumed character of Superboy (which the Siegels claim was created by Jerry), and Smallville does not feature Superboy, but rather a young Clark Kent, which appeared in Superman comics prior to the first publication of Superboy in comics (1944). In making this claim, Warner Bros. said that the use of Clark Kent in Smallville are not subject to the termination of the transfer of copyright filed by the Siegels – even if the court does find the termination to be valid.

Something that many Superman scholars have noted was mentioned by the Siegels’ attorney Marc Toberoff in the Variety piece, that is, images of a young Clark Kent that pre-date 1944 were limited to showing Superman as a baby, or as a toddler, not as a teenager or adolescent.

One of what may be many landmarks to come in the legal matter came when, in his summary, Judge Lew said that Time Warner’s (and its co-defendants, Warner Bros. and DC Comics) arguments that Superboy was, in fact, work for hire when it was created were not persuasive in light of the 1947 ruling by New York State Judge Addison Young, who ruled that the rights to Superboy did belong to Siegel, and therefore, he did transfer the copyright to National (later DC Comics) in 1948

Lew wrote: "Defendants' [Time Warner] attempt to recast Superboy as a 'derivative work' or 'work for hire' stands in stark contrast to Judge Young's conclusion that Detective/National was 'perpetually enjoined and restrained from creating, publishing, selling or distributing' Superboy, based on the fact that Siegel was the sole and exclusive owner."

"Defendants' argument also contradicts the fact that Siegel subsequently transferred his exclusive interest in Superboy to National in the May 19, 1948, stipulated settlement. Had Superboy been nothing more than a derivative work, Siegel would have owned no interest in the Superboy property to transfer."

Making note of the fact that Time Warner had based an argument on Young’s rulings in the past, such as the 1973 lawsuit by Siegel and Joe Shuster to regain the rights to Superman, Lew added: "Defendants now take the inconsistent position that this court is not bound by the state court findings, as they relate to Superboy.”

Of course, conspiracy theorists will have a field day with the fact that in DC’s recent Infinite Crisis miniseries, a version of Superboy has been revealed to be one of the works’ major villains, and that, in this week’s issue, apparently both “Superboys” have been killed, perhaps clearing the way for one to return using the name “Supernova” – thus effectively shedding the DC Universe of any character named “Superboy.”

The case is far from over.