Stan Lee drops $1bn name claim against former company
Comic book creator Stan Lee has dropped a $1 billion lawsuit against his former company over claims that executives at POW Entertainment had conspired to “steal” his name and likeness.
In May, the 95-year-old creator of hundreds of superheroes such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, Thor and Black Panther filed a claim at the Superior Court of the State of California.
He accused POW and two executives of brokering a “sham” deal to sell POW to Hong-Kong based Camsing International and “fraudulently steal” his name, image and likeness.
Lee allegedly thought he was signing a non-exclusive licence with POW in connection with the creative works owned by POW for the sale to Camsing.
However, according to the claim, the defendants (the current CEO of POW and a former business partner of his) were seeking to obtain an exclusive licence to Lee’s name, image and likeness on a worldwide basis.
In the claim, Lee said he couldn’t have read the “illegitimate document” himself because of his advanced macular degeneration (he was declared legally blind in 2015) and he didn’t recall anyone having read it to him.
But today, July 10, Lee and POW released a joint statement confirming that Lee had filed an application to dismiss the case and the court approved the dismissal.
Lee said: “The whole thing has been confusing to everyone, including myself and the fans, but I am now happy to be surrounded by those who want the best for me. I am thrilled to put the lawsuit behind me, get back to business with my friends and colleagues at POW, and launch the next wave of amazing characters and stories.”
Shane Duffy, the current CEO of POW, added that the company was looking forward to working with Lee again to develop projects that had been put on hold when the suit was filed.
“We recently got together with Stan Lee to discuss our path forward, and we and Camsing International are pleased with his overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction.”
Camsing added that it has always considered the accusations to be completely without merit and that POW hadn’t been served with any documents relating to the complaint.
“The company doubts whether Lee is personally behind this lawsuit. Fortunately, with the dismissal of the US complaint, the ill-founded lawsuit is solved satisfactorily,” it concluded.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today's top stories
Mixed fortunes for Scottish Rugby at UKIPO
EUIPO report explores corruption and counterfeit links
Chinese court accepts blockchain evidence in copyright case
