How Stan Lee Media Obtained Rights to Spider Man
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Chronology of Events that Gave Stan Lee Media
Ownership of Stan Lee's Co-Creator's rights to Marvel Creations
The matter of Stan Lee Media, Stan Lee and Marvel arises from the way that Stan Lee and Marvel have
dealt with his namesake...
[Plus]
Chronology of Events that Gave Stan Lee Media
Ownership of Stan Lee's Co-Creator's rights to Marvel Creations
The matter of Stan Lee Media, Stan Lee and Marvel arises from the way that Stan Lee and Marvel have
dealt with his namesake company Stan Lee Media, founded by Stan Lee in 1998 during his three month
hiatus (August, Septemebr, October, 1998) from a succession of lifetime employment agreements with
Marvel.
In 1996, the first company Stan Lee founded, Marvel Comics, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
protection.
after a long and protracted battle between American business tycoons Ron Perelman and
Carl Ichan for control of Marvel.
When it emerged from bankruptcy protection, a Perelman linked
company, Toy Biz, led by Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad.
was successful in getting its Plan of
Reorganization accepted so that it could acquire Marvel out of bankruptcy.
In August, 1998, as part of its approved reorganization plan, Toy Biz' s Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad
decided to use the ability of the bankruptcy court to void all executory contracts, to void Marvel's most
expensive executory contract, and the only lifetime contract it had, a $1 million per year lifetime
exclusive contract with its founder Stan Lee.
To cut costs of the financially crippled company as it was
emerging from Bankruptcy burdened with debts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Marvel voided
Stan Lee's $1 million a year contract.
In September, 1998, Mr Perlmutter offered Stan Lee a new $500,000 per year, two year Employment
contract to replace Stan's lifetime agreement on a take it or leave it basis.
Because in his entire history
of employment with Marvel and its predecessors Stan Lee had never challenged anything Marvel
presented to him to compensate him for the creations that made Marvel successful, Mr Perlmutter
expected that Stan would accept this take it or leave it offer.
Stan always understood he was being paid
a premium by Marvel as payment for his co-creator's rights, but never demanded a royalty of more than
he was offered because of his alleigance to the company he founded and named.
.
Pelmutter's crass voiding of Lee's contract resulted in an unprecedented response by Lee.
Lee suddenly
understood that Marvel's voiding of his exclusive Employment Agreement, which was in large part
based on his assignment and forebearance of any and all co-creator's rights Lee retained to his creations
for Marvel over the years, caused all of his co-creator's ownership rights in Marvel's copyrights on his
creations to suddenly revert to him free and clear of any limitations or encumbrances.
Because Lee did not have a written contract with Marvel when he created his most valuable characters,
between 1961-1968, and Stan had never executed any independent written assignments to Marvel of
his creator's rights, and no such assignments had ever been recorded with the US Copyright office, the
only valid assignment of those rights by Lee to Marvel was made as a part of the $1 million a year
Employment contract Marvel entered into in the mid-1990's.
When that Employment and Rights
Assignment contract was voided, Lee was re-vested with, or restored in, all of his rights, whatever they
might be, without any restrictions or limitations for the first time in his career.
Them during the only period in his business life that Stan had no contractual relationship with Marvel,
after Stan's contract was voided in August, 1998, through November 1, 1998 when he entered into a
new contract with Marvel, while he was considering how to respond to Mr Perlmutter's offer of
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