Licensing rights dispute Ultraman's
licensing rights outside
Japan have been the subject of a prolonged legal dispute between Tsuburaya Productions and Chaiyo Productions based in
Thailand. Tsuburaya had previously collaborated 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. On 5 February 2008, Thailand's 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. Despite UM Corporation and Chaiyo filing a counter-dispute, in April 2018, the legal court came to a definite close where a final judgement states that the dispute and the document was deemed invalid, forbidding UMC to use the Ultra Series and all its related characters and forced them to pay Tsubaraya damages for its infringement of its rights. On 10 December 2019, it was confirmed by Tsuburaya that the court has rejected UMC and Bluearc's appeal for a retrial, stating the court's first verdict of regarding the rights and ownership of Ultraman to Tsuburaya is still legitimate and final, and that any future appeals by UMC and Bluearc will likely be rejected. As UMC and Bluearc failed to file a further appeal by 4 March 2020, they were to pay US$4,000,000 (approx. 400,000,000 Japanese yen) in compensatory damages, as well as other various court fees. The resulting victory has reached Thailand as well and the Thai Supreme Court ordered a ruling in favor Tsuburaya Productions as the legitimate copyright owner of the shows listed in the License Granting Agreement alongside ownership over
Hanuman vs. 7 Ultraman (and its remake,
Hanuman vs. 11 Ultraman) and
Jumborg Ace & Giant. Sompote had made an appeal to the court over the decision, but was dismissed. Sompote believes the decision would affect the former two movies' status as national heritage items, and has appealed to both the Supreme Court and Ministry of Culture on that front. The legal battles with Chaiyo are likely to come to an end, as Sompote Saengduenchai died on 26 August 2021.
Malaysian book ban On 6 March 2014, the
Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it had banned the publication of an
Ultraman comic book
Ultraman: The Ultra Power "due to contents that were detrimental to public order". Social media users later noticed that a page in the book described the character of Ultraman King (from the film
Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy) as a god, which in the Malaysian language is the Arabic word
Allah. The Home Ministry later confirmed that the use of
Allah was indeed the reason for the ban, claiming that the comparison may "confuse Muslim children and damage their faith". This highlighted the larger ban to prevent non-Muslims in Malaysia from using the word
Allah, as well as a suit from the
Catholic Church of Malaysia over its usage. ==Television series==