Genius Brands International and Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment have formed Stan Lee Universe, a joint venture, which will hold the worldwide rights to Stan Lee’s name, physical likeness and signature, and creations in perpetuity, the companies announced.   Genius Brands will manage and control the joint venture.

The rights include 100 previously unexploited post-Marvel properties, from which Genius plans to develop and license approximately seven properties per year.

Genius Brands was already in business on one Stan Lee property, the Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten animated series (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) recently acquired by Amazon Prime (see "Amazon Prime Gets Stan Lee Series").  Genius’ best-known property is Baby Genius.

The deal comes just after a lawsuit filed against POW! by Lee’s daughter JC last year (see "Stan Lee’s Daughter Sues Pow! Entertainment") was dismissed, POW! announced.  The judge sanctioned JC Lee $1,000,000 and her law firm $250,000 for filing a frivolous suit.  The suit had alleged that "the rights to Stan Lee’s intellectual property had been looted, muddied and entangled by POW! and a range of bad actors enabled by POW!"