Comic writer Lee assigned the rights to his superhero characters to Marvel in 1998, but after StanLeeMedia collapsed, minority shareholders of the company claimed that Lee had previously assigned those rights in a written agreement to a predecessor company of StanLeeMedia.
According to Wolk, the prior legal efforts by some shareholders of StanLeeMedia to pursue ownership rights of the superhero characters were stymied because the claims were brought derivatively, with minority shareholders of StanLeeMedia trying to stand in the shoes of the company without its authorization, against both Marvel and Lee.