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News: Marvel Sues Disney Over Cartoon Caretaking
posted July 16, 2004
July 16 -- According to a report in Variety, Marvel Enterprises filed suit against DC and their affiliated ABC Family television operation for $16 in relation to cartoons featuring Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Hulk licensed to the entertainment giant when the channel was known as Fox Family. Marvel claims that Disney has failed to provide proper accounting on their profitability and has not promoted them to a reasonable extent as features on the network.
Marvel further charged Disney with hiding profits from videos and DVDs the company packaged and released to coincide with 2002's Spider-Man movie. That portion of the suit corresponds to an earlier dispute between the two companies about the use of artwork to sell those units through Disney's Buena Vista division.
Disney acquired the cartoons from Fox when they purchased the channel in 2001. Fox had purchased rights to run the cartoons from a mid 1990s deal with Saban Entertainment, the children's media company who made them.