Marvel and DC Enforce "Superhero" Trademark

An anonymous reader writes "GeekPunk is announcing that their flagship comic book title featuring superheroes patronizing their favorite bar & grill during their off-hours will now be entitled Hero Happy Hour beginning with the fifth issue of the ongoing series. According to creator Dan Taylor, "The decision to change the title was brought upon by the fact that we received a letter from the trademark counsel to 'the two big comic book companies' claiming that they are the joint owners of the trademark 'SUPER HEROES' and variations thereof." " Read the recent boingboing post for more background as well.

Comments

This was TWO YEARS AGO!

[1u3hr]

The posts linked are dated 01-30-2004.

WTF? A "news" site generally deals with current events. Or at the very least, mentions the rather relvant fact that this is history, not news. Of course, that would be assuming that the Slashdot editors actually RTFA.

Re:"Superhero" as a trade mark?

[AlterTick]

"The concept of superheros"

Nobody said anything about 'concepts'.

When they claimed trademark on the term "superheroes" they sure as heck did say something about "concepts". Unlike "Superman", or "Batman", or "Spiderman", the term "superhero" doesn't refer to anything in particular, but rather a generic set of things. Trademark is not like a patent, where the holder can use it to stake out a market segment and keep competitors out. THe purpose of trademarks is entirely for consumer protection, to prevent confusion in the marketplace. The fact that the term "superhero" exists in the common vernacular as a generic concept that nobody (other than a handful of jackass lawyers and executives at DC & Marvel) associates with any particular company's or companies' products, combined with the fact that their defense of said trademark over the last 40 years has been practically nil, obviously raises huge questions as to the validity of the trademark.