In August, we reported that Stan Lee Media Inc. (SLMI) filed a suit against Conan Sales Co., the producers of ‘Conan the Barbarian’, on the same day the film starring Jason Mamoa premiered. Now we have a response from the defendants regarding the suit and it doesn’t look too good for SLMI.

To recap, SLMI feels that the transfer of the Conan properties was performed unlawfully. At the time of SLMI’s bankruptcy in 2001, a bankruptcy judge allowed Conan Sales Co. to reclaim the character of Conan per a ‘Settlement Approval Order.” The SLMI lawsuit is arguing that this bankruptcy judge’s order should be voided as it did not provide sufficient notice of the sale to their 1,800 shareholders back then.

Now Conan Sales Co. has filed a response and they are asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit as they feel it was served on an “untimely” basis.

According to THR, Conan Sales Co states that SLMI had a chance to challenge the bankruptcy judge’s order at the time of the decision in 2001 but failed to do so. They also assert that the Bankruptcy Code does not require shareholders to be notified of a transfer and that a notice of the hearing was sufficient enough to inform them of what was happening. In addition, Conan Sales Co is stressing that if SLMI is to win their case, they need to show that fraud was committed on the court. From the allegations in the court papers, they feel that SLMI has not fulfilled this requirement.

They also state they believe that the timing of the filing of this suit was an opportunity for SLMI to “ambush” and “embarrass” them at a time that was crucial in their attempts to revitalize the Conan character. Conan Sales Co. has requested that this suit be dismissed as they feel that SLMI should have filed back in 2001 if they felt that the decision for the reclamation of Conan was done unlawfully. Any attempts to do so now is moot.

Although the movie was considered a flop (only grossing $50million from a budget of $90million to make), the money in question on both sides would be made in ancillary projects such as video games, comics, etc. The next move is now in the court’s hands….