NEW YORK (AP) -- Filmmaker Spike Lee and Viacom have settled a lawsuit Lee filed to keep the media giant from calling its TNN cable television network "Spike TV."

Lee had obtained a temporary injunction in June, preventing the name change, but on Monday state Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub lifted the order.

The ruling means Viacom, which also owns CBS and MTV, can proceed immediately with plans to rebrand TNN as Spike TV, the "first television network for men." Viacom said it was renaming TNN "Spike TV" to attract more men to an audience already two-thirds male. Details on the settlement were not disclosed.

Lee, director of "Malcolm X" and "Do the Right Thing," got the injunction after claiming that Viacom was renaming TNN in a deliberate attempt to hijack his name, image and reputation.

Lee, whose real name is Shelton Jackson Lee, said he objected to being associated with low-brow programming.

TNN shows reruns of "The A-Team," "Baywatch" and "Miami Vice" and sports entertainment such as pro wrestling and "American Gladiators."

The network also carries an animated series featuring Pamela Anderson as the voice of Stan Lee's "Stripperella," an undercover agent who is also a stripper.

The judge initially ordered Lee to post a $500,000 bond on June 13 after he issued a temporary injunction against Viacom's plan to rename TNN. But after a hearing two weeks ago, the judge raised the bond to $2.5 million and gave Lee until Monday to post it.

During the hearing, TNN vice president Kevin Kay said the network had lost millions of dollars since the injunction and stood to lose millions more if the bar continued.

The additional $2 million was never posted, and the judge vacated the injunction after both sides reached the agreement, said one of Lee's lawyers, Terry Gross.

"We have settled the case with Viacom," Gross said. "It's obviously good when parties settle."

Viacom officials didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on the judge's order.

While the case was pending, Lee was in Los Angeles filming "Sucker-Free City" for Showtime, a cable network owned by Viacom.

It makes me sick to think that this was settled outside of court.. I wonder what that a-hole got out of it. Viacom should just drop all funding for Sucker-free city.

Yeah, totally agree.

Whatever he got I hope he chokes on it. Karma's a bitch.

while it IS amusing that Spike actually won the suit, if Striperella, R&S & Gary the Rat are examples of what's to come once they change their name...let's keep it TNN.

They settled with money??

What, I thought this was about preserving his artistic blah, blah, blah! I see it this way, TNN's programming sucks regardless of the name and Spike Lee was halfway to oblivion anyway, so now he can take a few bucks and leave us alone.

We all win!

Thank god. Now I can finally take down the candlelight vigil I had set up.

Now Shelton is setting his sights on railroad companies, punch mixes, and many, many house hold dogs all over the country.

I wonder how much it took to shut up that lamer.

I can't belive TNN wussed out. Wait a minute, I can... but it still sucks they did. They didn't have much faith in the law I guess.

Wonder if they settled with giving old Spikey Lee a development deal! Or maybe his head will be part of the SpikeTV logo!?

This clears the way for Spike Lee to change his name to TNN. Then when he "re-invents" himself (ala Prince) he can become the New TNN.

There is nothing here that says Shelton was given any money at all. I think when the judgeordered Shelton to post another 2 million bucks he got cold feet and wanted a way out of this fast. I would have preferred that Viacom refused to settle and force a judge to make a ruling on this issue, but I can understand why they settled.

There was no doubt in my mind that Spike Lee would lose his case. If for some reason he would have won it would have become a legal pandemonium. More lawsuits would have ensued, and soon enough parents would have to pay for the rights to name their children.

It's about time men got their own network. It's sickening how every single channel is for women these days.

Why are people acting like Spike Lee won anything? Shelton simply backed down.

Judge: Post another 2 million bond to go forward with the case.

Lee: Um...I think I wanna drop the case.

Viacom: Sounds good to us.

Case settled. Both sides of course claim to be satisfied.

I thought cash exchanged because of the statement:

"We have settled the case with Viacom," Gross said. "It's obviously good when parties settle."

Seems like to settle a case the parties have to come to an agreement.

What part of that implies that money was exchanged between the 2 parties?

Maybe it was a joint publicity stunt all along...

Ok, let me write it clearer...

When I hear the word Settled out of court, it means TO ME that some ground was covered and the party being sued gave or offered something to the party sueing to drop the case.

Viacom has not stated how it was resolved other then it was settled out of court.

So what was the deal? since I assume if the case was dropped they would have said that instead of settled.

So what exactly happened?

Strange case. Spike is such a common name. Why would anyone think it's referring to a specific person?

I want to know who wrote Spike Lee's first amendment statement. It seems too scripted.