Alex Arkadin,

I'm sorry, but you are completely misunderstanding the legal issues when you assert that this decision hinged on the contention that Lee created the characters. That is not true at all.

The legal test here is (1) instance and (2) expense.

The decision does hinge, in part, on Lee's contention that Kirby did all of his work as a result of Lee's assignment because that goes to the "instance" prong. This is not the same as character creation. There is plenty of room for Jack to have been the creator or co-creator of characters that resulted from Lee's assigments, or even his plots. An obvious example that I believe Lee has always admitted is the Silver Surfer. The question is not whether Kirby created the FF, the question is whether he created the FF while engaged in work for hire.