Marvel and DC lose ‘SUPER HERO’ trademarks

You know how Marvel and DC have held joint ownership over trademarks for “Super Hero” for decades? That time is apparently mostly over, as the US Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the companies’ claim to several of their trademarks, reports Reuters.

The cancellation comes as the result of a challenge from Superbabies Limited, a small company that produces a series of Superbabies comics about, well, superhero babies. Superbabies creator S.J. Richold decided to challenge the two comic giants’ claim to the trademarks after DC “attempted to block Richold’s efforts to promote The Super Babies,” wrote the law firm that represented Richold in a release.

Marvel and DC didn’t respond to the challenge by a July 24th, 2024 due date, resulting in the marks’ cancellation, according to the USPTO’s decision. As such, the office canceled four patents, the oldest of which USPTO records show was for the trademark “SUPER HERO,” registered in 1967. The two companies still co-own a “SUPER HEROES” trademark, registered in 2018, as well as a “SUPER-VILLAIN” trademark that they secured in 1985.

If you want to dive down a rabbit hole on the subject of Marvel and DC’s super hero-related trademarks, I’ve got just the thing. One of the lawyers involved in the Superbabies trademark challenge, Adam Adler, actually wrote up a two-part series of articles for Escapist Magazine lightly explaining how the companies came to jointly own the trademarks and what they’ve done to guard that ownership over the years. Adler links out to other articles with even deeper dives, too.