Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1038387-20150101215847/@comment-220364-20150101230657

Something I just found re the Phantom Lady snarl and AC - See the 2nd item. If I'm reading it right along with these lists - : For our purposes, if Iger Studios couldn't have assigned PL to Fox and later Ajax-Farrell, everything between 1943 and 1973 is out of play for the DCU. And even if Iger did act legally, the AC stuff is out since it is essentially derivative from a PD work. It does beg the question though if the 1947-1955 stories resided with those publishers or reverted to Quality and were part of what DC bought. Given how Brian Cronin stated things, I'm guessing not since DC viewed the assignment as illegitimate.
 * Quality stopped using PL in 1943
 * Fox - rightly or wrongly - Started using her in 1947 and continued through 1949
 * Ajax-Farrell - again, rightly or wrongly - picked up the character from 1954 through 1955
 * DC bought Quality out in 1956, but did not renew the copyrights on the PL stories Quality had published. Nor did they apply for the trademarks related to the character.
 * By 1972, anything from prior to 1947 had fallen into PD. That year AC published a new PL story and DC reprinted a Quality story.
 * 1973 DC published "Crisis on Earth-X"
 * 1983, with All-Star Squadron in the offing, DC sent a TM-based "cease-and-desist" letter to AC. AC caved rather than litigate. AC later found out DC didn't have a mark for PL, nor could they have applied for one.