<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/01/marvel-dc-lose-superhero-trademarks-after-failing-to-respond-to-cancellation-petition/>
"We have a hero in our midst, one that is responsible for freeing up the term
“superhero” from its previous trademark imprisonment. If you don’t recall,
Scott Richold is a British comic artist who produces the
Superbabies line of
comic books. Richold applied for a trademark for his comic only to find it
opposed by both DC and Marvel. The two companies jointly held 4 trademarks to
the term “superhero” and variations of that term. And if that strikes you as
plainly absurd, given that the “superhero” is the name of an entire genre of
fiction across many mediums, you’re certainly not alone.
As a result, Richold petitioned the USPTO to cancel those four trademarks,
arguing that the terms have become generic. As detailed in a follow up post, I
figured there were several ways that DC and Marvel might respond to the
petition. They could have fought it, deploying a hefty legal war chest to try
to simply bully Richold out of his attempt. Or they could have amicably
released their marks, generating some amount of goodwill within the public. But
I didn’t expect the companies to simply fail to respond to the petition
entirely, which is exactly what happened.
As a result of the failure to respond, Richold moved for a default judgement,
which would free the “superhero” term from trademark status and move it into
the public domain. And, admittedly, to my surprise, the TTAB granted the
default judgment.
A U.S. Trademark Office tribunal has canceled a set of “Super Hero”
trademarks jointly owned by comic giants Marvel and DC at the request of a
London-based comic book artist, according to a Thursday order.
The USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled for S.J. Richold’s
Superbabies Ltd after Disney’s Marvel and Warner Bros’ DC did not file an
answer to Superbabies’ request to invalidate the marks."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
