Stan Lee Media is in the courts again, fighting what seems to be a moot battle.
Fair Use Image, logo from the now defunct Stan Lee Media website
Denver-based Stan Lee Media, Inc. (which is no longer associated with comic book writer Stan Lee) is battling WaltDisney Co. for the copyrights to Marvel superheroes, reported The Associated Press, Oct. 28. Arguments were heard in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, though no ruling was issued.
Disney said that they were tired of fighting the same battle which has been going on for more than 10 years. Last year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit put forth by Stan Lee Media who claimed copyrights of characters from the Marvel Universe and also demanded profits Disney had made from movies and merchandise associated with them. Disney said that the case should be closed. SLM has tried to appeal the federal judgment at least six times in other courts and has failed.
As reported by Hollywood Reporter, Disney pointed out at the beginning of this year that SLM “is an administratively dissolved corporation that lacks the capacity to license.” SLM has no other functions at this point other than the court battles it has been fighting since 2002. Disney further stated that “under Colorado law, a dissolved corporation can't carry on its business except to "wind up and liquidate its business and affairs."
Founded as a web-based company in 1998, Stan Lee Media had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. The company was failing within only a couple of years after opening its doors and despite outer successes which included winning the 2000 Web Award for the best Entertainment Portal on the World Wide Web. But the company was dismissed from bankruptcy in November of 2006 and has been lingering on life support in the U.S. court system ever since.
Should Stan Lee Media continue in its battles? In what seems to be a moot case (Disney bought Marvel in 2009), the company keeps getting back up for the fight. Walt Disney Co., just keeps showing up and winning.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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