GameSpot reports that NCSoft has secured an early, partial victory in the lawsuit brought against the company by comics company Marvel. The judge in the case threw out several complaints by Marvel, which is suing NCSoft and Cryptic Studios because characters created in City of Heroes can closely resemble copyrighted Marvel characters.

<legal fun>Apparently, a number of drawings depicting the alleged copyright infringement were drawn by Marvel staffers or contractors themselves--contrary to claims made in the Marvel complaint. Those depictions were thrown out of the Marvel complaint by Judge Gary Klausner, who presides in this case. In addition, six causes of action in the current complaint were also thrown out by Judge Klausner; Contributory Copyright Infringement, Direct Infringement of Registered Trademark, Contributory Infringement of Registered Trademark, Various Infringement of Registered Trademark, Direct Infringement of Registered Trademark, Contributory Infringement of Common-Law Trademark, and Various Infringement of Common-Law Trademark.</legal fun>