Back in 1998, comic book legend Stan Lee (brought to current fame and into the American consciousness by “Big Bang Theory”) formed a company called Stan Lee Media to manage the growing list of characters that he was creating. Stan Lee eventually cut ties with the company before it filed for bankruptcy in 2000. In an attempt to revive the company, the new management sued American icon and well respected and loved Disney several times over several years claiming it owned the rights to the superhero characters created by Stan Lee and used by Disney. Disney won every lawsuit, and Disney is now suing Stan Lee Media for a half a million dollars in unpaid legal fees.
All of Stan Lee Media’s lawsuits were dismissed, and so Disney was awarded $462,000 to cover its court costs and legal fees in defending the lawsuits which were determined by the court to be largely without merit. Since Stan Lee Media was bankrupt, Disney went after the company that funded the frivolous lawsuits, TAP-SLMI. Disney claims that the TAP-SLMI bank account had over $240,000 in it as of November 2014, but the account now has just $2,000.
This case has become interesting because one of Stan Lee Media’s co-founders, Peter F. Paul, has connections to Hillary Clinton. It appears that Mr. Paul is a major backer of Hillary Clinton and he even tried to get Bill Clinton to sit on Stan Lee Media’s board of directors.