I'm confused about copyright ownership of movie adaptations

Whenever a movie is adapted into a comic book or novel, the copyright/trademark owner is always the same. But whenever a comic book or novel is adapted into a movie the copyright/trademark owner is often different.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic: ™ and ©2000 Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie: ©2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen novelization: ™ and ©2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

This is just one example among many, so don’t tell me this has something to do with Alan Moore not wanting his name on the movie. The Resident Evil video games and tie-in novels have a different copyright owner than the Resident Evil movies and tie-in novels. The True Blood TV series and tie-in comics have a different copyright owner than the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. The Hellboy movies and novelizations have a different copyright/trademark owner than the Hellboy comics.

The only exceptions seem to be DC and Marvel movies, which never fail to mention that the character is a trademark of DC Comics or Marvel Characters, Inc.

So how is it possible for a character or franchise to have different copyright/trademark owners in different media?

cause a comic book company doesn't know how to make movies, so they do some sort of deal, that involves other companies making the movie

Yep, like with the Xmen movies, at that point Marvel couldn't make a movie on its own so they sold the film rights to (umm, can't remember.)

The way I understand it is that unless its worded otherwise, anything directly related to the film eg. novelisations, certain merchandise stays with the film rights. Everything else stay with the original owner ie. Marvel

I guess the easiest way to think of it is like a loan of the Intellectual property for the purpose of making a movie, or the other way round- making a comic from a movie.

@cave_duck: Does this mean that if Capcom wanted to include Alice in a future Resident Evil game, they would have to pay licensing fees to the movie company?

If Marvel movie novelizations always mention that Spider-Man is a trademark of Marvel, then why don't Resident Evil movie novelization ever mention that characters such as Jill Valentine are trademarks of Capcom?

I'll explain it like this:

Let's say Miramax offers you a deal to license Captain Spectacular Man, your intellectual property, into a full length motion picture. You are presented with 2 options, industry standard.

Option A: Extend a limited license for Captain Spectacular Man to Miramax films. Whilst you retain full intellectual property rights to the character, Miramax will own all rights and licensing related to the film version, including merch and any spin off medium properties, with exception to the original medium your IP came from (This means that if Captain Spectacular Man is a comic, Miramax cannot produce Captain Spectacular Man comics without your express permission, nor can they transfer the film license to another medium without your permission)

Option B: A much rarer option, Miramax buys out the rights to your IP lock, stock and barrel. They now own Captain Spectacular Man full stop, and they can do what ever they please with it.

Most comic writers and IP owners opt for option a, since it makes you more money (box office reciepts, merchandise royalties, future options), retains overall control of your character and allows you some input into the film.

As to your specific inquiry, the "Trademark X Studios" is for the film rights only.

@rd189:

Nicely put!

@netspiker:

Regarding Resident Evil's Alice- was she a character in the game before it was made into a movie? Or was she created specifically in the first movie?

I'm not too up on my RE... But like was said above if she was created in the movie, then Capcom would need to ask first (assuming that they took the option A version of the contract)

The thing I'm most excited about it there's finally going to be a Captain Spectacular Man movie!!!!