Stan Lee Media Files Billion-Dollar Disney Lawsuit Over Marvel Characters

The company formerly affiliated with Lee has tried for years to win back lucrative rights to iconic characters.

The latest move involves a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Disney for alleged copyright infringement. In a suit filed Tuesday, SLMI alleges that it has been assigned the rights to these characters, that Lee didn't properly assign the works to Marvel and that Disney has never recorded its agreement with Marvel with the U.S. Copyright Office. Essentially, SLMI says that the Disney-Marvel merger was a fantasy as large as one of Lee's creations.

Wilson found that the lawsuit against Lee entailed an issue  -- whether Lee transferred to Marvel the same IP rights previously assigned to SLMI -- that was previously addressed in a prior case. So the judge dismissed it.

According to the lawsuit, "SLMI is entitled to proceed with this copyright infringement lawsuit against Disney, based upon Disney's independently actionable conduct which occurred after April 2009, regardless of the outcome of SLMI's appeal to the 9th Circuit in the 2007 Case."

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