Marvel & DC’s Super-Hero “Claim” (ComicsResearch & Such)
Comments(2) Marvel and DC have been claiming and attempting to enforce this “trademark” for many years. According to this link (one of several) from the US Patent and Trademark Office’s “Trademark Application and Registration Retrieval system,” Marvel & DC claim a “First Use in Commerce Date” of October 1966. Most knowledgeable folks aggree that this claim is bogus on many levels, but that hasn’t stopped the USPTO from allowing the publishers to register the claim successfully and repeatedly over the past few decades. Digging around the archives via TESS reveals that all TM claims aren’t automatically registered – some are denied. But from what I can tell, they’ve never denied Marvel & DC’s claim.
Apparently, just because the USPTO allows you to register a trademark doesn’t actually mean that they’re endorsing your claim’s validity – they’re just aggreeing that, well, you’ve made the claim (tax dollars at “work,” folks!). I suppose if someone with deep enough pockets and stamina to spare were to take Marvel & DC to court over this, the claim’s bogus nature would be revealed and overcome. But until then, these two “super-gorillas” continue to throw their imagined weight around.
[A posting from Gene Kannenberg, Jr. The Comics Scholars’ Discussion List has spent some time on this issue recently. Sarah Peters, a colleague of mine in the English department, sent me a blurb about it from NPR. None of us are lawyers, so I want to hear a lawyer who works in Intellectual Property comment, especially since issues like trademark and fair use come up frequently on the list. BK]
category: Comics, Politics, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics
Thanks for the ideological cross-pollenation, Bobby. As you’ve discovered, I just rechristened my blog, which entailed a URL change.
Gene, No problem! I am actually hoping that our posts will come across my undergraduate mentor, Joel Pace, since his wife is an Intellectual Property lawyer. I would really like to hear what she has to say about “Super-hero” (superhero)as a trademark. I also blogged a few other articles on relevant cases such as Da Vinci Code and Apple Corps vs. Apple Computers.