Posted on 06/28/2008 12:22:22 PM PDT by doug from upland
The Rage Offstage at Marvel By BILL ALPERT
Lawsuits against Marvel, Lee and Bill and Hillary are pressing Paul's claims that a dot-com he started with Stan Lee in 1998 was undone by the actions of the former president, short-sellers and Stan Lee himself. In a Manhattan federal district court, some of Paul's associates argue that the bankrupt dot-com, Stan Lee Media, still owns rights to Marvel characters like Spider-Man and The X-Men. On behalf of the former dot-com, they want half the profits that Marvel (ticker: MVL) is piling up, now that it's producing its own films like the smash hit Iron Man and the just-opened The Incredible Hulk.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
READ MORE HERE - http://www.stanleemedia.net/
What do Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby’s estate have to say about this (Ditko is still alive).
I don’t know that they’ve had anything to say.
btt
I don’t mean to derail discussion of the funding scandal. Just pointing out that there were multiple parties in the creation of these licensed characters.
And work for hire could still be appealed for creator ownership after a period of years. Jack fought Marvel for his artwork back for a lengthy period (when pages were being sold off at auction I believe to profit the company starting in the 1980s).
And I think Kirby and Simon fought for ownership of Captain America and won (they may have then sold or licensed the chacters back to Marvel).
Don’t recall Ditko’s name ever coming up (he’s a private person).
And the media seems only to willing to gloss over the contributions of others in their mythmaking.
If Lee pursued sole ownership of the trademarked characters with no consideration given to (or waived by) the artists, then it is an incomplete claim of ownership and should not have much support in court. Kirby did not draw the Spider-man comic but he did co-create the character.
We are back in Texas after two years in Rancho Cucamonga California. Our youngest son 24 years old decided to stay in Irvine Calif where he goes to Concordia Univ. He was walking in L A one day recently and saw Stan Lee. He said “Hi, Stan” and Stan said “Hi” back to him. I asked HOW he recognized him. Mike said he is easy to recognize. Said he is a nice guy.
BTW that was a photo of Stan Lee.
You’re not derailing the fundraising scandal. This article is more about the claims against Marvel. Since I have a considerable number of shares in Stan Lee Media, I am very interested in this case.
This history may help - http://www.stanleemedia.net-a.googlepages.com/synopsisof13dfilingandfindingsofinvestig
Over three years ago, I spent considerable time going through the bankruptcy file of Stan Lee Media. I was astounded at the failure of Stan to list the assets of the company. Stan Lee Media had tens of millions of dollars worth of assets. They should have been reorganized and asserted their rights, not destroyed.
Another mis-adventure The Clintons were involved in.
Who’da thunk it?
Didn’t Lee sell the rights to his characters a while back?
He made a deal with Marvel in late 1998, one month after virtually the same deal he made with Stan Lee Media. He sued Marvel for a share of the profits from the characters and got over $10 mil. Stan Lee Media has some real legal issues on its side in the lawsuit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.