Stan Lee Media Inc., the company founded by Marvel's Stan Lee (but which no longer has anything to do with the comics icon), is on a lawsuit losing streak.

Last month, SLMI lost a lawsuit attempting to win back the rights to Conan the Barbarian, and now the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the company won't be allowed to intervene in Lee's ongoing legal battle with Marvel over the rights to some of his best-known characters.

SLMI's previous attempts to regain rights to characters that it claims Lee improperly sold to Marvel have been thwarted by the company's 2001 bankruptcy, which left it with no shareholders who had legal standing to sue Lee or Marvel.

The company's new board reportedly sees the Second Circuit's ruling as an opening to begin its own lawsuit against Lee, which was on hold while the court decided whether SLMI could join the existing Lee vs. Marvel case.

[cbr]