- US Court cancels Marvel and DC’s joint “Super Hero” trademark after legal challenge.
- This opens the term “Super Hero” for public use, benefiting small creators like Superbabies Ltd.
- The case argued that “Super Hero” is a generic term, not deserving of trademark protection.
- History of Marvel and DC’s previous successes defending the “Super Hero” trademark outlines their tight control.
The law firm of Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg (RJLF) has announced a landmark victory in its trademark case against comics publishers Marvel and DC Comics. They have obtained an order from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelling Marvel and DC Comics’ joint trademark for the word “Super Hero” and thus allowing their clients, S.J. Richold and Superbabies Limited, to freely use the term. Bleeding Cool previously covered the legal situation here.
This trademark cancellation was granted after Marvel and DC failed to respond to court requests.
Pretty sure they had a legal tiff a while back and instead of draining their (at the time) small pools of money, they decided to share the trademark and instead screw over all the smaller comic publishers
This is why the alternate names are all over Malibu, Image, etc.
It’s pretty hard to believe Image still exists and hasn’t been gobbled up by either of those two.
Their niche is taking risks on new IPs that DC and Marvel won’t. Comic creators cut their teeth at one of the big companies, gain notoriety, and go over to Image or Dark Horse with a new IP they have creative control over.
Ekeing out a place under their shadows is always a viable strategy