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Stan Lee Media Inc. is back. |
Despite years of court losses, the resilient company that was founded by Stan Lee
in the late 1990s is still attempting to convince the world that a
decade ago, it was robbed of many of valuable franchises, including
Fantastic Four, X-Men and Spider-Man.
The latest move involves a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against
Disney for alleged copyright infringement. In a lawsuit filed on
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.
Just one problem -- res judicata.
Yes, we've seen this argument before. In SLMI's latest complaint in
Colorado federal court, the company admits a "tortured history of
litigation" and goes through the many legal proceedings in Colorado, in
New York and in California.
The full details of what happened are terribly complicated, but
essentially, when SLMI went into bankruptcy a decade ago, its assets
were raided, and SLMI shareholders have been attacking the perceived
vultures ever since.
These efforts eventually culminated in a decision on August 23 by California federal judge Stephen Wilson.
In the ruling, Judge Wilson addressed why he wouldn't allow SLMI to go forward with a lawsuit against Stan Lee -- res judicata, which the judge defined as barring lawsuits based on "any claims that were raised or could have been raised in a prior action."
Judge 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. And
so, the judge dismissed it.
The ruling is now on appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, SLMI is now attacking Disney and will likely face that very same res judicata issue.
So why does SLMI believe this case has a shot?
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 Ninth Circuit in the 2007 Case."
We'll see if a judge buys that, but SLMI's track record with judges isn't so mighty.
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