Stan Lee Media did not get the Christmas gift it has been hoping for. The failed dot.com that was once associated with Stan Lee has been trying to sue for rights to characters created by the company's namesake. But the 10th Circuit ruled on Tuesday that Disney is the owner of the Marvel Universe and not Stan Lee Media. This follows the 9th Circuit ruling that Stan Lee had never assigned the rights to even minor characters to the upstart company.

The basis for SLM's lawsuits is a claim that during the period of August 1998 and November 1998 when Stan Lee was not under contract with Marvel, he signed his rights to his creations (or co-creations) over to the new company. They filed lawsuits in several states against Lee and Marvel to reclaim the rights that it said were stripped during the 2001 Bankruptcy.

To date every one of SLM's lawsuits have failed. In the 10th Circuit ruling, SLM has been barred from relitigating the issue under collateral estoppel, saying that the company has had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue by any standard.

[Source: Courthouse News Service]