Posted on 03/15/2007 6:45:12 PM PDT by doug from upland
Stan Lee Media Sues Marvel: $5B
Back-from-the-dead dot-com files suit claiming ownership of superheroes. March 15, 2007
By Michael Cohn
Stan Lee Media sued Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion Thursday, claiming it co-owns Marvel’s superhero characters, including Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Incredible Hulk.
The company is no longer owned by Stan Lee, the comic book legend who more recently hosted the TV series Who Wants to Be a Superhero? on the Sci-Fi Channel, which was produced by his latest company, Pow Entertainment
In the suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, Stan Lee Media seeks to assert rights to the revenue generated by its superheroes that Marvel Entertainment is profiting from.
Mr. Lee founded Stan Lee Media during the dot-com boom as a way of bringing his superheroes online, but the company went bankrupt and produced a litany of lawsuits and criminal charges in its wake involving stock manipulation schemes against the other co-founders of the company.
Now the company is back from the dead, having been reconstituted by Jim Nesfield, who gathered a group of former investors, while he took charge as chairman, CEO, and president. He has now filed a lawsuit on their behalf.
He said Mr. Lee signed a contract in October 1998 that assigned co-creative interests to Stan Lee Media. Unfortunately for Stan Lee Media, the same rights were assigned to Marvel.
“Stan Lee is no longer with the company, but the contract remains intact,” he said. “He has signed it and the contract is still in force.” He added that Mr. Lee may be called to testify if the case goes to trial.
He said the contract had been hidden from the public and Mr. Nesfield has filed suit on behalf of the shareholders to assert their rights. He said they are entitled to 50 percent of all revenue going back three years and going forward 50 years. They can only go back three years by law, but not as far back as 1998.
A Marvel spokesperson declined to comment immediately but said the company would issue a public statement.
Whistleblower History
Mr. Nesfield is a self-described whistleblower who assisted New York Governor Eliot Spitzer in his investigation of market timing by mutual funds when Mr. Spitzer was the state’s attorney general. He has also testified before the U.S. Senate, he said, about market-timing abuses, and appeared on 60 Minutes.
While he was not initially involved with Stan Lee Media, he said he has been a long-time observer ever since the company filed to go public in 2000. “I’ve been following the company since its initial flotation and its demise, and I specialize in bankrupts in distress,” he said. “I’m what they call a vulture.”
Ethan Horwitz, a partner at Goodwin Procter, who filed the complaint on behalf of Stan Lee Media against Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Enterprises, and Marvel Characters, said a settlement is possible.
“It’s very early in the case, but obviously in any case a settlement is possible,” he said. “Basically, Stan Lee assigned a lot of valuable rights to Stan Lee Enterprises. We are now the owner of those rights, and we go from there.”
He acknowledged that the history of the company has been messy, but he thinks much of it won’t be relevant to the main issues. He said he had not yet heard back from Marvel, and unlike his client Mr. Nesfield, he said he had no estimate of the damages.
Is this the case that will bring Missus Clinton down?
You have to love this. Just before dismissal of the bankruptcy in Los Angeles, the counsel for SLM actually made a motion to BE ALLOWED TO DESTROY THE CORPORATE RECORDS, claiming that there was no money to pay for storage.
My friend Peter Paul has been blamed for the collapse of Stan Lee Media. You are going to find the truth in Los Angeles Superior Court when Bill and Hillary have to explain under oath what really happened in Paul v Clinton. We hope the California Appellate Court will bring Hillary back in as a defendant.
Do not miss HOW THE CLINTONS COLLAPSED STAN LEE MEDIA --- http://youtube.com/watch?v=LUWlxc7h5AI
The Hillary case is Paul v Clinton. This is a separate case.
Damn, only 5B?
I wish I had the piles of old Marvel comics I had as a kid,, double damn,, ;-)
Good luck, Stan.
Stan is not the plaintiff.
Now the company is back from the dead, having been reconstituted by Jim Nesfield, who gathered a group of former investors, while he took charge as chairman, CEO, and president. He has now filed a lawsuit on their behalf.
Hillary vs a Dot Com!
Hillary vs My Childhood {I'm 58}!
I love it!
back from the dead.. wow
too bad they decided to kill off Captain America.. bad kharma, man. ;-)
How's this for a future ap article title
Hillary caught up in comic case
The author got that wrong. The rights were first assigned to Stan Lee Media, then they were assigned to Marvel.
Ethan Horowitz wrote the book on this kind of litigation. He already beat Marvel in the Captain America case.
http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=19310
Stan Lee Media Sues Marvel for $5 Billion
March 15, 2007
Having just emerged from bankruptcy protection on Dec. 6, 2006, Stan Lee Media, today (March 15, 2007), filed suit against Marvel Ent. worth $5 billion. In the suit, Stan Lee Media is claiming co-ownership of all Stan Lee's co-creations for Marvel, including Spider-Man, X-Men and the Incredible Hulk. Stan Lee Media requests half of Marvel's earnings derived from those creations, in addition to damages and legal fees.
The suit claims that Stan Lee throughout his employment with Marvel retained the co-creator rights to all his characters. In Aug. 1998 when Marvel terminated Stan Lee's employment, he regained those rights. Lee then went and formed the dotcom firm Stan Lee Media as a way to tap into the Internet boom. On Oct. 15, 1998, he signed over not only his creations to the new firm, but his likeness as well. Then in Nov. 1998, Lee individually entered an employment agreement with Marvel, signing over his Marvel characters and likeness to Marvel, despite having already signed over the rights to Stan Lee Media. The suit claims Stan Lee Media informed Marvel of their contract and that Marvel "independently and/or in collusion with Stan Lee, intentionally concealed the material terms" of Marvel's new agreement from Stan Lee Media, the public and its own shareholders.
Stan Lee Media has become a tragic icon the dotcom boom and bust. The public firm ultimately fizzled into bankruptcy and brought on several lawsuits and criminal charges related to stock manipulation. Stan Lee left the company and went on to form POW! Ent.
During bankruptcy, Stan Lee Media dropped its NASDAQ listing and became a private firm. During a Dec. 2006 special shareholders meeting, James L. Nesfield was made chairman and president of the firm. Nesfield is best known as the whistleblower who uncovered the mutual fund market timing scandal, which was worth trillions of dollars
Marvel was not available for comment.
Here's a preview:
Q: Do you breath on a regular basis?
A: I don't recall.
Q: Is the color of my hair brown?
A: That depends upon the meaning of the word "is".
etc.
Unfortunately for Hillary, Peter Paul has lots of home video. She will not get away with "I don't recall" in this civil case.
He already beat Marvel in the Captain America case.
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Intellectual property sounds like an interesting field to practice law in...
--
The Death of Captain America
http://www.marvel.com/universe/Captain_America_(Steve_Rogers)
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