This is some mess ala mode.
Stan Lee former company, Stan Lee Media, Inc. claims that Disney doesn't own the characters Stan created, and they are seeking “the maximum statutory damages allowable” and the full control over Iron Man, Spider-Man and the X-Men.
Deadline reports:
In its suit, SLMI says that Lee signed over the rights to comic book characters that he created or would create to its corporate predecessor in October 1998. The comic writer and publisher was paid for the rights in shares in Stan Lee Media, Inc. The shares later proved worthless when the dot-com bubble burst at the end of the 1990s, leaving the company to unsuccessfully seek bankruptcy protection in 2001.Stan's group is seeking a nice slice of that 5.5 billion Disney made from the Marvel films.
In its complaint today, SLMI says an amended version of that October 1998 agreement was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2000, clearly indicating its rights. “Oddly, in November, 1998, Stan Lee signed a written agreement with Marvel Enterprises, Inc. in which he purportedly assigned to Marvel the rights to the Characters. However, Lee no longer owned those rights since they had been assigned to SLEI previously.
