Stan Lee Media has filed a multibillion dollar lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company. Stan Lee Media was an internet company that shut down more than ten years ago and has been racked in litigation.
In a complaint filed in a Colorado U.S District Court by Stan Lee Media claims that a contract signed by Stan Lee back in 1998 assigned the rights of all of his comic book creations to them. Stan Lee (who co-founded Stan Lee Media) is not longer an officer of the company. The lawsuit deals primarily with profitable movies based on Marvel charters. Disney acquired Marvel at the end of 2009 and such movies include “Iron Man 2“ and “Thor” as well as “X-Men First Class” and “The Amazing Spider Man” that was produced by other studios.
According to documents filed in the lawsuit, Lee signed a contract in October of 1998 assigning the rights to all characters he had created or would create to Stan Lee Media. Then, 2 weeks later, he signed another contract with Marvel assigning them the same rights.
This is not Stan Lee Media’s first time in court. Back in 2009 they filed suit against Marvel and Lee over ownership of the characters – this suit was dismissed.
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- Stan Lee Media sues Disney (variety.com)
