Did Disney sue Stan Lee?

Stan Lee was a comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer from the United States.  For two decades, he was the creative leader of Marvel, guiding it from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia conglomerate that dominated the comics and film industries.

In 2021, Disney filed a lawsuit against the families of the late Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Don Rico, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and Gene Colan.

Disney filed the lawsuits after receiving copyright termination notices from certain families, who claimed that the rights to the MCU characters should revert to the creators’ heirs.

According to reports, the lawsuit sought a ruling that the flagship superheroes are no longer eligible for copyright termination. This report is significant because Disney may be forced to share ownership of the aforementioned characters.

According to the copyright law, authors can reclaim their rights after they have been granted to publishers. However, this occurs only after a certain amount of time has passed. As a result, in this case, Marvel would be required to turn over Ditko’s rights to the heroes in June 2023.