DC Comics failed to stop the registration of the Super Payments brand before Superindustry

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Tuesday, February 16, 2021

It was requested to register a trademark whose main element is an "S" like that of Superman, and in the end they granted the registration of the same

Baudoin Pineda applied to the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) requesting the registration of the SP Super Payments brand, to distinguish services included in class 36 of the Nice International Classification, which corresponds to financial services and monetary operations.

Initially, an insurer objected, but the SIC declared it unfounded, so the registration was granted to SP. A few months later, the case was reopened due to the opposition presented by the DC Comics company.

Superman, the character of more than US $ 1,000 million

This is one of the oldest comic houses. They have produced and licensed marketing material featuring characters like Batman, Aquaman, Flash; but the best known is undoubtedly Superman.

DC has continuously employed and spread the Superman brand since the publisher's inception. The company assures that it has licensed the letter S, distinctive of the super hero, in more than comics. Toys, DVDs, games, clothing, food, beverages, home decor items, and furnishing accessories decor items, among other products are the ones that DC Comics has protected.

According to the company, they own the copyright to the Superman brand and its symbols and features, such as the shield with the letter S.

These rights are covered in Colombia by article 9 of Law 23 of 1982, and Decision 351 of 1993 of the Commission of the Andean Community of Nations, so, according to them, granting registration would violate these decisions.

When analyzing the signs, the opponent assures that the applicant only adds the letter “P” to the imagotype and changes the expression 'man' to 'pagos' in the verbal element, which for them is an almost exact reproduction.

They assure that it has nothing to do with the fact that the applicant intends to record services in a class that is unrelated to the one they record, because regardless of the differences in the market to which they offer their products and services, consumers may confuse their origin. .

THE CONTRASTS

After an analysis, from the point of view of competitive connection, the SIC reported the null relationship, complementarity and similarity between the services that Pineda intended to record and those that the opposition protects.

On the one hand, the opposition protects services and products classified in classes 32, 30, 21, 28, 14 and 25, corresponding to the merchandising mentioned at the beginning, while the applicant wants to protect a money order and payment service, which is found in class 36.

This is how the SIC declared DC Comics' opposition unfounded and granted the registration of the SP Super Pagos (mixed) trademark.

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