Super Hero Fest Violates Trademark

pmark23 said:
Once they get it trademarked they can do whatever they want to whoever is illegally infringing on their trademark, such as website forums running filmmaking contests.

Sure they may be on shaky ground, legally -- but I bet they have a lot more lawyers than DVXUser does.

Why risk it? After all, we've already given up on our rights of fair-use. This is just the logical next step.
Click to expand...

Why risk it? LOL! Like this is going to happen in three months... haha... if this were ever to happen, it would take a lot longer than that to be made "law".
 
Originally I thought it was something registered recently (90's or so). It's actually a really old trademark from the 60's:

Word Mark SUPER HERO
Goods and Services IC 025. US 039. G & S: MASQUERADE COSTUMES. FIRST USE: 19651029. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19660304
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Design Search Code
Serial Number 72243225
Filing Date April 12, 1966
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Registration Number 0825835
Registration Date March 14, 1967
Owner (REGISTRANT) BEN COOPER, INC. CORPORATION NEW YORK 33 34TH ST. BROOKLYN NEW YORK

(LAST LISTED OWNER) DC COMICS, INC. CORPORATION ASSIGNEE OF NEW YORK 666 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10103

(LAST LISTED OWNER) MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC. CORPORATION ASSIGNEE OF DELAWARE 387 PARK AVENUE SOUTH NEW YORK NEW YORK 10016
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 19870314
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
 
And, for those of you who are perhaps confused, I don't think anyone is seriously talking about cancelling hero-fest. One, it's not called "Super Hero-fest". Two, we've got the law on our side.

If we cancelled it, then we would be legally supporting their belief that they own it.
 
I went ahead and wasted 6 miutes of my life reading this thread. I hope, pmark, that you were never serious about cancelling the fest. As it's already been stated, this is Hero-Fest, so why even bother with the hub-bub? But, perhaps Jarred already knew this, and that's why he called it Hero-Fest, though he wanted the characters to be "super".

Law-Schmaw. Someone ever wanted to send me a cease & desist, they can. I wouldn't respond, and I'd keep on doing what I'm doing. Making a character, that has nothing to do with theirs. If they think it's "super" enough to be a threat, or to even take notice, then I'll frame the stinkin' letter & post it as a compliment.

If they ever, and they know this, tried to shut someone down for creating a new character that really had nothing to do with theirs, they'd lose a LOT of fans & customers.
 
It doesn't have to be make law. They just need to get the trademark, then there are already a large set of laws, regulations, and procedures (and a vast record of punitive examples) they'll have at their disposal.

They will also be able to retroactively pursue damages as well. For example, programmer Mike Rowe had his business shut down ("Mike Rowe Software") by Microsoft for violating their trademark, despite the fact that his parents named him before Microsoft even existed.

Once you own the trademark, you can use the full extent of the law to protect your company's interest. The law exists to protect the trademark holder, not consumers.

The purpose of Marvel/DC applying for this trademark is to prevent competitors from entering their "Super Hero" territory -- at least not without paying some licensing fees first.
 
Again, what's your concern, pmark? Did they trademark the word HERO or SUPER HERO?

I just checked, and it's still called HERO FEST.

End of concern.
 
I think they are also planning on suing the Greeks for creating heroes with super human abilities. This contest is perfectly fine because it is herofest. And I agree if a company gets sued over it can afford to fight it they should. Although, if Marvel and DC already have the actual trademark on the word they would most likely lose. Try saying "Lets get ready to RUMBLE!" and see if Michael Buffer doesn't hunt your ass down.

what the hell is a joint trademark, did they come up with it together? This smacks of pure and simple anti-competition. Why this went through is beyond me. Hopefully though if someone fights it they'll lose their trademark. All they have to do is show it was in use before they said they first used it.
 
Last edited:
Marvel and DC don't really care about the word "Super Hero". Once they own that word, then can claim ownership of the entire Super Hero concept, whether that word is used exactly or not.

Legalities don't matter -- only that they have a lot more money and lawyers than DVXUser does.

The only course of action is to shut down the contest, delete the threads, and have all DVXUsers clear their browser cache. And we should hope and pray that Marvel and DC's lawyers don't go checking the Google cache.

I only hope it's not too late.
 
pmark23 said:
Marvel and DC don't really care about the word "Super Hero". Once they own that word, then can claim ownership of the entire Super Hero concept, whether that word is used exactly or not.

Legalities don't matter -- only that they have a lot more money and lawyers than DVXUser does.

The only course of action is to shut down the contest, delete the threads, and have all DVXUsers clear their browser cache. And we should hope and pray that Marvel and DC's lawyers don't go checking the Google cache.

I only hope it's not too late.
Click to expand...

Me too. I'm clearing out my cache now. Do you think I should retitle my film? It was "The Superheroey Adventures of Superhero Man in Superheroland".

Microsoft may have trademarked their company name Windows (and I'm sure tons of other things as well) and copyrighted their specific software but anyone can create software in general.
 
agreed Blaine... it's pointless... there is absolutely NOTHING to worry about here. It's utter insanity if someone wants to trademark SUPERHERO... LOL!
 
pmark, I'm really hoping this is all fun & game to you, and that this really should be in the cafe section as just pure BS ... only because I can't read you & have no idea if you're serious or sarcastic.

If you WERE serious ... well, then you've got issues.

But otherwise, I'll assume this is just humor for you.

It's HERO fest. 'nough said.
 
I just thought of a work-around. All is not lost.

Jarred will have to do a Search-and-Replace in the HeroFest forums, replacing all instances of "Hero" or "Super Hero" with "Noir".

So "HeroFest" becomes "NoirFest", etc, etc.

PM me and I'll send an SQL statement that will do the conversion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top