Disney sued by Stan Lee Media for billions over Marvel character rights

Who owns Spider-Man, The Avengers, the X-Men, Iron Man and a slew of other characters created by Stan Lee when he worked at Marvel Comics?

According to Stan Lee Media, they do and they are suing the Walt Disney Co., seeking billions of dollars for copyright infringement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Stan Lee is no longer associated with the company which holds his name, but that is not stopping the company, which went into bankruptcy a decade ago, from suing Disney.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado, claims that Lee signed a contract in 1998 assigning his rights to all the characters he created while at Marvel to Stan Lee Media. So Stan Lee Media says they are due money from Disney for all the movies they made and money from what was licensed out to other movie studios. (If you remember "The Avengers" itself brought in $1.5 billion in its worldwide release.)

However, Stan Lee signed those rights back to Marvel Inc. a couple of weeks later. Disney purchased Marvel. In 2009, Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion, including all of its roughly 5,000 characters.

According to the L.A. Times, "Stan Lee Media claims its rights supersede Marvel's because its contract was signed first. In addition, it claims Disney never publicly recorded Marvel's agreement with Lee with the U.S. Copyright Office."

In a statement, the Walt Disney Company said, "This lawsuit is without merit. It arises out of the same core facts and legal claims that have been rejected by three federal district court judges."
Stan Lee Media has been involved in numerous lawsuits over the years.

In 2007, the shareholders of Stan Lee Media, an internet company, filed a suit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion claiming that when Stan Lee assigned his creative rights to Stan Lee Media, this made Stan Lee Media co-owner of all the character Lee created while at Marvel. In September 2008, that lawsuit was dismissed. A similar, but larger suit was filed against Marvel in January 2009. In 2010, that suit was dismissed saying Stan Lee Media had no standing to sue.

Stan Lee Media also sued Paradox Entertainment for the rights of Conan on Aug. 21, 2011, when the Conan movie opened. That suit was dismissed in February 2012.