Organizers of the Salt Lake Comic-Con scheduled to take place Sept. 4-6 at the Salt Palace Convention Center may soon enter into a legal battle with San Diego Comic-Con, unless they change the name of their upcoming event. The popular San Diego convention has already threatened legal repercussions, due to concerns that the similar name may confuse people into thinking the two conventions are affiliated.
More than fifty American and international comic conventions include “Comic Con” in their name, so this potential case could have legal ramifications for a large number of popular events.
“Precedence for the mark ‘Comic Con’ was set when Denver Comic Con received a trademark for their convention [in November],” said Bryan Brandenburg, Salt Lake Comic Con’s co-founder and chief marketing officer, in a statement. “Nobody owns the words ‘Comic Con’… and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has already ruled on this.”
“If they win this against us, they have a precedence to do this to others. We’re in the process of aggregating the other comic-cons around the country.”
Amelia Rinehart, an intellectual-property law professor at the University of Utah, believes that San Diego Comic-Con may actually have a case.
“[San Diego] alleges that it owns the mark of Comic Con, and that is certainly close enough to the one that [Salt Lake] is using to charge them with trademark infringement,” said Rinehart. “To put this into perspective, Xerox and Kleenex are not considered generic terms, because those companies enforce their rights to avoid becoming generic for photocopying and tissues, respectively. As a mark owner, it is important to police use of the mark to avoid genericide, and that may be what [San Diego] is doing here. Damages will depend on the monetary harm to [San Diego] from [Salt Lake’s] use of the marks.”
Salt Lake Comic Con has until Aug. 6 to formally respond to the San Diego Comic-Con cease and desist letter. Brandenburg intends to respond with a formal letter which includes the support of other conventions next week.
Have something to say? Let us know in the comments section or send an email to the author. You can share ideas for stories by contacting us here.
No comments:
Post a Comment