Marvel, DC not so super
Marvel Comics: stealing our language from BoingBoing. Marvel and DC claim to own the term “super hero,” which means that noone else can use it (in trade) without permission and/or licensing (which means paying them). Apparently, they applied for this trademark way back in 1979- and they’ve been sending cease and desists to independent publishers. (Note the release is from 2004- a lot of people think this is a new thing, which it’s not, although these new posts are what brought this to my attention.) You’ve got to be kidding me. Between this and the NCSoft suit, either their business strategies or their attorneys are overreaching. These copyright/trademark actions completely take away my desire to purchase any of their titles, which I occasionally do used to. These are the kinds of issues that harm the authors they publish. The blog Underwear Pervert (BoingBoing’s new term to describe super heros) provides some examples of how their own authors use the public domain.
Anonymous said,
March 21, 2006 @ 8:45 am
Well, if it’s a start of a new trend, I wonder if Disney will copyright the names “Mickey and Minnie”, “Huey, Louie, and Dewy”, etc.
Carlos said,
March 21, 2006 @ 11:48 am
Names are more trademark than copyright- Disney has the trademark for Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, and quite possibly Huey, Louie and Dewy, but I’d have to look that up…