Ultraman's licensing rights outside of Japan have been the subject of a long legal dispute between Tsuburaya Productions and Chaiyo Productions (also called Tsuburaya Chaiyo Co Ltd) based in Thailand. Tsuburaya had previously worked together with Chaiyo on the production of two movies, "The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army" and "Jumborg Ace & Giant"—the latter of which featured another Tsuburaya superhero, Jumborg Ace—in 1974. Sompote Saengduenchai, founder/president of Chaiyo Productions, claimed and maintained that in 1976, the late Noboru Tsuburaya, Eiji's son, who had died in 1995, had given him and his company a contract which had given him rights to everything Ultraman outside Japanese territories in exchange for a monetary loan.
In anger of the reason that the document failed to state clearly and exactly what had been given to Tsuburaya in exchange for these rights, Japanese and Thai courts accepted this contract as real and bonding, because of the supposed hanko of the late Noboru Tsuburaya in the document. Tsuburaya Productions insisted and maintained that the contract was a fraud (due to some errors, including the some titles of the series in the document, such as "Ultra Q" being called ""Ultraman 1: Ultra Q,"" "Ultra Seven" being called ""Ultraman 3: Ultraman Seven,"" and Tsuburaya Productions being called "Tsuburaya Prod. and Enterprises," a name the company never did business under), and repeatedly opposed the issue.
In the course of the legal battle, Sompote presented photos of himself sharing his photos of Thai Buddhist stating that Eiji had based Ultraman's face on the said structure, a claim which he has continued to hold since the dispute began. No other proof supporting this claim was known to exist.
After an 8-year battle in the courts of both countries, Sompote Saengduenchai was awarded a favorable decision on April 27, 2004. The exact ruling fell into some dispute: Some said it only gave him selling rights for the first six Ultra Series ("Ultra Q" through "Ultraman Taro") and "Jumborg Ace" outside Japan, and broadcasting rights of said shows within Thailand. Other accounts, usually reported in the Thai/Asian media, said that Chaiyo had got the rights to those six shows everywhere outside Japan. The dispute could be taken as Chaiyo's side of the story, as Tsuburaya was reported in the Japanese media to continue taking more action against them.
Tsuburaya decided not to market any of the disputed six Ultra Series outside Japan until it had completely settled the rights cases with Chaiyo, although the company continued to sell all of the Ultraman programs created after Ultraman Taro, including the theatrical feature "Ultraman the Next," throughout the world. Because of the copyright dispute, sending literature on Ultraman into Singapore and Malaysia was stopped. It also resulted in a slow coming down against Thai Ultraman fans, who were assumed to be outright Chaiyo supporters.
In 2005 the American company BCI Eclipse announced they had acquired the DVD rights to the original "Ultraman" from Chaiyo. A 3-disc box set containing the first 20 episodes of the series was released on July 18, 2006, and a second 3-disc box set containing the remaining 19 episodes was released on November 7, 2006. Both sets feature the original Japanese dialogue track as well as the English dubbed version produced by United Artists for North American people. At certain times, the English dialogue track changed to the Japanese dialogue for small time. This was because BCI had used audio from older recordings in which many scenes had to be cut or shortened for the American broadcast in order to fit running time. Tsuburaya Productions still held on to the complete original English dubbing materials, which they had obtained from a warehouse in 1997, and refused to provide them for BCI. (Contrary to BCI's statements, the original English dubs were complete and uncut, except for a small cut in the conclusion of Episode 36, "Gift From The Sky.")
During the time of the legal battle, Chaiyo created three of their own Ultras: Ultraman Millennium, Dark Ultraman (an evil Ultra), and Ultraman Elite. These were not used for other reasons than stage shows and for selling. Chaiyo also created a TV series he called "Project Ultraman," un-aired as of late March 2008, a joint project in China featuring his own Ultraman and attaching Hong Kong star, Ekin Cheng to the project.
On August 23, 2006, Tsuburaya Productions created a new law for ultraman's right against Chaiyo for copyright (concerning their three original Ultraman characters), and the court case was taken to China. The Chinese courts in Beijing opened "The Ultraman Copyright Study Group" in response to the law for ultraman's right. In April 2007, the Thailand Intellectual Property Court ruled in favor of Tsuburaya Productions, ordering Chaiyo to stop making commercial profits from Chaiyo produced Ultraman characters such as Millennium, Dark, and Elite. The supporters (except for fans) were also fined THB 15,000,000 (approx. JPY 50,904,959 or USD 428,673.50 c. April 2007) plus interest and attorneys' fees. "Project Ultraman" went on a break as a result of the ruling, which said that even if Chaiyo owned the right to some of the Ultraman series, it did not own the right to Ultraman and his brothers, including the design. Chaiyo gained permission to sell the original series, but lost the right to create and market its own Ultraman, or even use the original, without Tsuburaya permission.
On February 5, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tsuburaya Productions of Japan after they made an appeal to the initial ruling. The ruling ended the long legal battle by finding Sompote Saengduenchai was not a co creator of Ultraman. The decision ended Sompote's bid to continue his enterprise, and the court gave Sompote 30 days to stop gaining money from Ultraman. The final ruling saw Tsuburaya Productions as the main copyright owner. Sompote was also required to pay THB 10,700,000 plus interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent a year starting from December 16, 1997, when the original law for ultraman's right was filed.
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia (, "Makedonίa") (Macedonian: Македонија, "Makedonija") (Bulgarian: Македония, Makedoniya) is a region in the southeastern Europe, in Balkans. In ancient times it was the Kingdom of Macedon and its greatest and most well known leader was Alexander The Great. In Roman times it was part of the . Today, its borders have changed and after the it was separated in three countries: Greece with the region of Macedonia (Greek Macedonia or ), the country North Macedonia (), and Bulgaria ( (Blagoevgrad province)).
Greece and North Macedonia have been arguing over the name Macedonia ever since the independence of the country using the name "Republic of Macedonia". North Macedonia had to choose a temporary name in order to be recognized by the United Nations and was known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The two countries have been discussing a solution for a new name that both find acceptable and recently agreed upon the name North Macedonia with the between Greece and North Macedonia. Bulgaria has not taken part in the dispute but has some disagreements with North Macedonia. Even though Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia with its name, it doesn't support the Macedonian ethnicity and language anywhere, but claim it's all Bulgarian.