shutterstock_594353732_grzegorz_czapski
27 March 2019Trademarks

Sony battles DC Comics over ‘Zero Hour’ TM

Sony has filed a petition to cancel DC Comics’ trademark for its 1994 comic book series "Zero Hour".

The DC mark (US number 1874656) was registered in 1995. The previous year, the publisher had released its "Zero Hour" comic book series, a limited edition crossover series that incorporated a number of popular DC characters including Batman and Superman.

The cancellation  petition, filed on March 21, comes after the technology company published the "Firewall Zero Hour" video game for its PlayStation console last August.

In December 2017, Sony filed a trademark application (US number 87713622) for the title. The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application in September last year as the examiner found it was likely to cause confusion with DC’s mark.

Sony has now taken its fight to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, claiming that DC has not shown sufficient use of the mark in the period since it was registered.

“There is no intent to resume use [of the DC mark] in connection with an ongoing series of comic book”, the petition claimed.

Sales of a series published in 1994 cannot be considered “continuous” use of the mark, according to Sony.

WIPR has contacted Sony and DC for comment.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories:

TQ Delta wins Englsh High Court injunction in SEP case

Google to ‘work with’ member states after Copyright Directive approval

CJEU clears up colour TM questions for Finnish court

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Patents
23 May 2019   The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday sided with Sony in its appeal against the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s final decision in an inter partes review of a patent directed to the storage of audio data.
Copyright
7 June 2019   A US comic book publisher has dismissed a cease-and-desist letter from DC Comics over an issue of its “Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force” graphic novel, according to reports.
Trademarks
4 September 2019   DC Comics is investigating whether to oppose three trademark applications, one of which features a superhero cartoon character and another including the word ‘Joker’.