richard63 wrote:
The interview where this was taken from was recently reprinted in the book, Stan Lee Conversations, edited by Jeff McLaughlin.

I remember reading that in the book. But this method would have been unknown to the vast general population at the time.

The heart of the lawsuit isn't so much who wrote which stories, but who created the marketable characters and therefore can profit from the movie rights and other merchandising.

I think it was in that same book that Stan admits that no one remembers who came up with which particular idea, because at the time - they were just trying to come up with a decent comic book. No thought was given to posterity, because - after all - this was just a comic book. No one realized that history was being made at the time.