DC Comics managed to defend the copyright of the superhero Flash in the Superindustry

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Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Visible trademark could not obtain its registration because its graphic element was similar to the distinctive element of the opponent

Many will remember the superheroes of DC Comics, the Justice League and all their fights against evil, which have been recorded in comics, movies and even television series. One of these legendary characters is Flash, renowned for his speed and the lightning element on his chest.

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Based on this association that most comic fans could make when seeing the sign of a lightning bolt, the American company filed its opposition with the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), due to the registration of a trademark that had a design and Flash-like expression.

And it is that the company Amawa Col SAS made the request for the Visible mixed brand to distinguish sports clothing and footwear, among other products included in class 25 of the Nice International Classification.

However, DC Comics pointed out that as the owner of the copyright of the superhero Flash, he wanted to emphasize that he had great recognition worldwide, in addition to the fact that the character was characterized "by wearing a red suit with the drawing of a golden lightning bolt ”.

THE CONTRASTS

In addition to this, he pointed out that when taking this into account, the drawing was very important because it was the main way to identify the character in the comics. The company also assured that the copyright of the work should be protected because, in this case, the graphic element was reproduced almost in its entirety and that the requested sign did not have other distinctive elements.

Finally, DC Comics stressed that with the broadcast of the television series 'The Flash' the character had once again become popular among consumers.

In response to the opponent's arguments, Amawa said that the rays in each case were different. "The color of this ray is gold and yellow, which shows that there are no similarities in colors or figures, except the circle," she concluded.

In addition, he pointed out that within the market various entrepreneurs and brands use the figure of lightning and that they currently coexist peacefully in the market before the eyes of consumers. “We must bear in mind that in the Flash figure the colors red and yellow will always come to mind for the consumer. The trademark requested is black and white,” Amawa said.

In order to determine whether or not to grant the registration to the Visible trademark requested, the Superindustry proceeded to carry out the unregistrability study and analyzed the cause that DC Comics had invoked.

Paragraph f of the aforementioned cause indicated that trademarks that "infringes the industrial property right or the copyright of a third party, unless there is the consent of the third party, could not be registered."

In order to support its opposition, DC Comics provided a series of evidence to the Directorate, among which were links that directed to pages that transmit the series 'The Flash', Google searches of the word or the registry of rights of author of the superhero in the United States, among others.

After conducting the study, the SIC found that the requested sign had elements characteristic of graphic novels protected by copyright, such as the lightning within a circle that the superhero has. For this reason, it denied the registration of the Visible trademark.

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