Stan Lee drops $1 billion lawsuit against his former company POW! Entertainment
95-year-old Marvel icon Stan Lee, in May, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against his former company POW! Entertainment that he co-founded back in 2001. He alleged that co-founder Gill Champion and its CEO Shane Duffy had tricked him into signing away the exclusive rights to his name and likeness. He recently dropped the case and seems to be rather glad to be back in business with them, reported Variety.
Back in 2017, Lee sold his company to Hong Kong’s Camsing International. The suit alleged that Lee sold his company without completely understanding the implications of the contract, partly due to his macular degeneration. However, it appears as though the whole affair was a misunderstanding from the very beginning, and now that it is past them, their relationship is as strong as ever.
On Monday, both POW! Entertainment and Lee issued a statement clearly stating that he has taken back the lawsuit. "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,” Lee said. “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!”
The CEO of POW! Duffy said, “We are ecstatic that this ill-founded lawsuit has been dismissed and we look forward to working with Stan again to develop and produce the great projects that were put on hold when the lawsuit was filed. We recently got together with Stan to discuss our path forward and we and Camsing are pleased with his overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction.” They also mentioned that they had been working diligently to ensure the entire matter was cleared, for they were truly concerned about Lee’s health.
Though this case seems to come to a close, there is still another intense lawsuit raging in Lee’s personal life, and it has to do with his former business manager Keya Morgan. Lee’s current attorney Stephen Crump has applied for a restraining order against Morgan in response to allegations that Morgan embezzled assets worth $5 million from Lee and isolated him from his family. The restraining order was granted, and now Morgan is prohibited from contacting Lee or coming within 100 yards of him or his daughter and his brother, Larry Lieber.
This came after the court dismissed another restraining order Lee's previous lawyer Tom Lallas in May. However, Lallas was fired back in February and did not represent Lee at the time the application was filed.
Hollywood Reporter had stated that the comic book writer had filed a declaration in February which said that his own daughter was physically and psychologically abusing him. Three others were cited as being complicit in the abuse. A few days after the declaration was notarized, however, Lee apparently changed his mind. He then refused to comment on it further.