Washington: The creator of Marvel and a comic book legend Stan Lee has sued his former business partners for 1 billion dollars claiming that they either tricked him into signing over the exclusive rights to his name, image and likeness or forged his signature.
Lee, 95, is going after POW! Entertainment – including the company’s current CEO Shane Duffy, and Gill Champion, with whom he co-founded the production company, reports TMZ.
POW! Entertainment was sold to a Chinese company, named Camsing, in 2017, but during negotiations, Lee claims he was in poor health and dealing with vision loss due to macular degeneration. He was also grieving over the death of his wife, Joan.
According to the court documents, Lee had no idea a sale was in the offing. Apparently POW! had to get a sign-off from Lee to use his name, and he claims he never signed any contract.
The lawsuit calls Lee’s name “the most important and prized possession Lee and his family owned his entire life.”
Lee also points to the fact he even refused to give Disney the right to use his name when he struck a multi-billion dollar deal with the movie company.
(ANI)