DC’s REAL Doomsday Clock: Dan DiDio, 5G, and the End Of The Trinity

Glenn Hauman

Glenn is VP of Production at ComicMix. He has written Star Trek and X-Men stories and worked for DC Comics, Simon & Schuster, Random House, arrogant/MGMS and Apple Comics. He's also what happens when a Young Turk of publishing gets old.

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4 Responses

  1. Even if individual early Superman stories enter the public domain, DC / ATT / whomever still own all the trademarks, including, you can bet, comics, print, audio, video, visual representations, clothing, etc. etc. etc. It’s not that big of a deal for the value of the IP.

    • Glenn Hauman says:

      Nope. Remember, a trademark is a source identifier that is intended to prevent consumer confusion as to the source of a particular good or service. DC Comics will no longer be the sole source of SUPERMAN stories, as they will no longer hold the copyright, and the courts are less than happy about companies that are using trademarks as clubs when the copyright has expired.

      I suspect DC will NOT be able to hold onto the trademark on the name “SUPERMAN” but will have to do “DC Comics’ SUPERMAN”, much the same way it’s Disney’s ALADDIN or Marvel’s AVENGERS.

      As far as the visual representations, it’s tied to first publication– so you can use the first “S” shield, but not the current famous one, much the same way you can use John Tenniel’s illustrations of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, but not Disney’s.

  2. Christopher Stansfield says:

    As Matthew above said, I think you are making a very big mountain out of a molehill. For one thing, “Superman” doesn’t enter the public domain– Action Comics #1 does. Can you do stories featuring that character, Superman? Sure. You can even have Lois Lane and Clark Kent in them. But his current costume? Nope. Lex Luthor? Jimmy Olsen? Brainiac? Heat vision? Kryptonite? Not for a looong time. And good luck selling your new Superman stories when you can’t put the name “Superman” on the cover (remember why Captain Marvel is now Shazam?) without being sued for marketplace confusion. Unless you think WarnerMedia is sensing some sort of gold mine in Golden Age reprints, they certainly aren’t calculating the loss in value you’re talking about just yet.

    • Glenn Hauman says:

      Nope. Again, a trademark is a source identifier that is intended to prevent consumer confusion as to the source of a particular good or service, and DC Comics will no longer be the sole source of SUPERMAN stories. It’ll end up being “DC Comics’ Superman”.

      Similar cases have recently come up about Sherlock Holmes.