In a new development in the monumental legal battle over ownership of ALL of Stan Lee's creator's rights to everything he ever created between Stan Lee Media Inc shareholders and Marvel Entertainment and Stan Lee, raging in Federal Courts in New York and Californian simultaneously since 2007, additional claims were made by SLM Thursday, April 30, to co-ownership of the trademark Marvel itself (created by Stan Lee of course).
The eminent 200 year old Park Avenue firm of Eaton and Van Winkle has joined in the epic battle on the side of Stan Lee Media shareholders, now working with Super Lawyer and legal icon Martin Garbus as lead counsel in the multi-state litigation.
The pitched legal battle of courtroom titans is now shaping up between the lawyers for shareholders of Stan Lee Media, whose company was looted and subverted for tens if not hundreds of millions in rights and claims, by Stan Lee and Marvel Entertainment, and the firms employed by Lee and Marvel.
Interestingly, after almost $10 million has been spent by both sides in legal jockeying for position, the only substantive ruling has come from Judge Wilson in California Federal Court who ruled in a Partial Summary Judgment that Stan Lee and his new public company, POW Entertainment, has illegally attempted to transfer ownership and US Copyrights to character properties including The Accuser and The Drifter to his new public company, POW! Entertainment without the knowledge and consent of the Bankruptcy court administering by Stan Lee Media.
The ramifications of this January 20, 2009 ruling which was never appealed by Lee or POW, could well support criminal action against Lee, his lawyer partner Lieberman and former SLM COO and current POW Entertainment COO Gil Champion, for defrauding the Bankruoptcy court in Stan Lee Media's Chapter 11 proceedings from 2001-2006, and for filing false statements with the US Copyright Office in attempting to illegally assign copyrights belonging to Stan Lee Media to POW Entertainment (POWN:BB)
