Warner Bros TV Settles Some Of ‘Smallville’ Licensing Suit

Turns out a jury won’t be deciding whether Warner Bros Television owes the producers of Smallville $100 million in damages after all. A WBTV spokesman today confirmed to Deadline that the suit filed by Tollin/Robbins Productions has “been resolved.” No details of the settlement today were made public. However, Tollin/Robbins did file court paperwork Wednesday to dismiss its own claims in the case. That doesn’t mean the suit is completely over. Smallville co-creators/writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough are still pursuing their suit against WBTV with a trial date of June 10, 2013. In the initial suit, first filed in March 2010, Tollin/Robbins Productions along with Millar and Gough claimed WBTV signed low-balling licensing deals with the WB and later the CW that were nowhere near the requisite arms-length. They also alleged that the deals were not conducted with the good faith that they should have been. Because of these deals, the production company and producers claimed the show’s value was decreased and they were cheated out of millions in profits. In September, Judge Michael Johnson cited a number of “triable issues” in the conflict of interest case. Smallville debuted on the WB Network on October 16, 2001. It ran until May 13, 2011, ending on the CW, which debuted in 2006 after the merger of the WB and CBS’ UPN.