Maryland Dispute over Tom Clancy's 'Jack Ryan' character goes to federal court

By Heather Cobun BridgeTower Media Newswires BALTIMORE, MD - The dispute over ownership of Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" character has been removed to federal court and a counterclaim has been filed against Clancy's widow, who filed the initial lawsuit. Alexandra Clancy filed suit in Baltimore City Circuit Court in August seeking a declaratory judgment that the estate is the sole owner of the character and entitled to profits from posthumous book deals. The defendants removed the case to U.S. District Court on Tuesday, claiming it involves a dispute over copyrighted material. The lawsuit alleged J.W. Thompson Webb, the personal representative of the estate, "failed repeatedly to defend the Estate's unique interest in Tom Clancy's characters" by signing agreements distributing profits from the new books between the estate and the companies. Webb denied Alexandra Clancy's allegations of improper behavior in an answer filed in October and said any decisions related to Jack Ryan were made in consultation with Clancy's longtime intellectual property counsel. Webb also filed a counterclaim at the same time, seeking a declaratory judgment that he "acted in a prudent and businesslike manner and effectively discharged his duties and powers as Personal Representative of the Estate." Webb is also requesting attorneys' fees for dealing with the lawsuit. Jack Ryan first appeared in Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" in 1984 and has since appeared in multiple books, including some written by other authors and published after Clancy's death in 2013. The profits from the posthumous books and those involving other characters created by Clancy have been divided between the estate and companies which were owned by Clancy, his ex-wife and their adult children during his life. Clancy's stake in those companies, Jack Ryan Enterprises Ltd., Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and Rubicon Inc., is now owned by his estate. But Clancy's widow said the profit sharing should have not occurred because the rights to the characters were owned solely by Clancy until his death and since then by his estate. In her complaint, Alexandra Clancy points to a 1988 arbitration settlement between Tom Clancy and the publisher of "The Hunt for Red October" which expressly acknowledged that Clancy owned the characters from the book, including Ryan. The copyright for the book was later transferred from the publisher to Jack Ryan Enterprise Ltd. "in accordance with the terms of the agreements" between Clancy and the publisher with no mention of the rights to the character, the complaint states. The settlement agreement in the author's divorce from wife Wanda King in 1998 also specifically referred to Clancy's rights to the characters created in works owned by the companies, the complaint states. "Accordingly, unless Tom Clancy subsequently assigned his rights to the character Jack Ryan, he remained the exclusive owner of the character Jack Ryan until his death on October 1, 2013," the lawsuit states. The three companies filed answers in October denying Alexandra Clancy's allegations and counterclaims for declaratory judgment. Clancy "structured her complaint so as to ignore the rights obtained by the Jack Ryan Entities in Jack Ryan and other characters under the federal Copyright Act," the companies allege. Tom Clancy wrote books for Jack Ryan Enterprise Ltd. as works for hire, according to the answers, and they own the registered copyrights in books where the characters were introduced and developed. The companies also seek a declaration that the entities have rights in the characters in books they hold the copyright to and Alexandra Clancy's attempt to terminate the copyright for "The Hunt for Red October" is overbroad and ineffective. Published: Thu, Nov 23, 2017