Spider-Man made his way into a Supreme Court decision today. In a case pitting inventor Stephen Kimble against Marvel Entertainment over an expired toy patent, the Court ruled to uphold a 50-year-old patent ruling that let the comics company stop sending royalty payments to Kimble — and they had a little bit of fun in reaching their decision. 
 
 In law, with great power must come great responsibility 
 
 Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment concerned Kimble's webshooter invention, a glove that shot foam string from its palm much like Spider-Man, which he patented in 1991. Marvel purchased the patent in 1997, and agreed to pay Kimble in royalties indefinitely. However, after discovering the 1964 Supreme Court decision Brulotte v. Thys, which determined that royalties need not be paid after a patent expires, the company stopped paying Kimble in 2010. Kimble thus sued Marvel, and brought the case to the Supreme Court late last year. 
 
 However, the highest court in the land ruled in favor of Marvel, stating that Kimble's arguments to view his patent in light of modern competition law were overall invalid. However, Justice Elena Kagan peppered the Court's decision with a few fun references to superpowers, the '60s Spider-Man animated series, and one of comics' most famous adages: 
 
 Justice Samuel Alito, who offered the dissenting opinion, failed to say "It's Clobberin' Time" when arguing to overturn the Brulotte decision. We feel it was a missed opportunity. ||||| Harvard Law Record 
 
 On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Kimble v. Marvel, also known as the Spider-Man case. Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan held that patent holders may not collect royalties on a patent after it expires. The case dealt with a toy that shoots out fake webs, à la Spider-Man. Kagan, a huge fan of comic books, decided to have some fun with the topic, weaving Spider-Man references throughout her opinion. (The justice famously has a great sense of humor, once citing Dr. Seuss in a dissent.) After noting that the toy is designed for "children (and young-at-heart adults)," Kagan delivers of series of jokes that enliven the dry case: 
 
 Mark Joseph Stern Mark Joseph Stern covers courts and the law for Slate. 
 
 The parties set no end date for royalties, apparently contemplating that they would continue for as long as kids want to imitate Spider-Man (by doing whatever a spider can). 
 
 Patents endow their holders with certain superpowers, but only for a limited time. 
 
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 Impressively, Kagan actually uses humor to further her point. One party to the case asked the court to overrule a longstanding precedent. But Kagan refused, instead abiding by stare decisis—a principle that the court should follow its own precedents. 
 
 [T]he decision’s close relation to a whole web of precedents means that reversing it could threaten others. 
 
 As against this superpowered form of stare decisis, we would need a superspecial justification to warrant reversing [an old decision]. 
 
 Then Kagan actually references the Spider-Man comic books: 
 
 What we can decide, we can undecide. But stare decisis teaches that we should exercise that authority sparingly. Cf. S. Lee and S. Ditko, Amazing Fantasy No. 15: “Spider-Man,” p. 13 (1962) (“[I]n this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility”).
– The inventor of a popular Spider-Man web-shooting toy can't keep reeling in royalties after his patent ran out, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 today. Stephen Kimble sold his patent on the toy to Marvel in 2001, and as the Verge explains, Marvel said it would pay him royalties indefinitely. But when it uncovered a 1964 Supreme Court decision that found royalties could cease once a patent expired, Marvel in 2010 halted payments. It's a ruling that's perhaps garnering more headlines than usual, thanks to the number of comic-book jokes Elena Kagan incorporated into the opinion she wrote for the court. Vox points out that per Supreme Court Review, Kagan is "a comic book fan and an avid fan of comic-book based action films, claiming that she has seen them all and that her favorite film is The Avengers" (she also likes frozen yogurt). A collection of her most Spider-y lines, from Slate and Vox: The parties were "apparently contemplating that [the royalties] would continue for as long as kids want to imitate Spider-Man (by doing whatever a spider can)." "Patents endow their holders with certain superpowers, but only for a limited time." "To the contrary, the decision's close relation to a whole web of precedents means that reversing it could threaten others." "As against this superpowered form of stare decisis, we would need a superspecial justification to warrant reversing [an old decision]." "What we can decide, we can undecide. But stare decisis teaches that we should exercise that authority sparingly. Cf. S. Lee and S. Ditko, Amazing Fantasy No 15: "Spider-Man," p 13 (1962): ('[I]n this world, with great power there must also come great responsibility)."