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Floppies, graphic novels, compilations, omnibusses (omnibusi?) are all fair game.
There is only one rule:*
Comic Books is a no judgement zone.
You can talk all you want about how Rob Liefeld is trash, Bob Kane is an asshole, or Frank Miller and Dave Sim’s politics have made them toxic, that’s all good.
If, however, another user is LEGITIMATELY a fan of something you don’t like, that does NOT make them a lesser person. Attack the art for being bad, not the person for being a fan of bad art.
* I lied. There are TWO rules... No piracy. Cover shots? That's good. Interior pages, in moderation? Sure. Full books? Links to pirate sites? That's how we get things shut down. :(
I'm not saying it's been a problem, because it hasn't been.
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That's weird. I never would have thought they owned the term, even jointly.
I'm fairly certain they knew they couldn't win and that's why they didn't bother to respond.
I don’t believe you have to “own” it per se. You either have to be currently using it, or plan to use it, and then file for it.
I’m glad to see that the courts made the right decision here.
A trademark is exactly that: Ownership. Anybody else using it has to pay you a license fee for permission, or can be denied using it. They have most definitely used the term all over, and might have prevented others from using it. Hard to tell.
I wasn’t clear about it in my post; I was referring to requirements when applying for a trademark. But you’re right that when you’re granted a trademark, you then own whatever it is that is trademarked.
At the end of the article it has a list of actions that have taken using the trademark.
Some of the actions listed at bottom of the article seem like over reach:
In 1996, an Australian company Hero Marketing Pty Ltd applied for a trade mark, opposed by DC Comics and Marvel and eventually cancelled the trade mark.
The villainous IP comic excerpts are cute but in common usage its been a genericized term forever.
The fact they both shared the trademark offers an argument that it was a genericized trademark from day one. After all if one thought they would win the argument that it applied only to their products they would have taken it exclusively for the competitive advantage.
Yeah, I thought that the whole point of trademarks to help consumers distinguish businesses in a given industry. Doesn't a "shared trademark" defeat the whole purpose?