Not long ago, we ran an article about San Diego Comic-Con trying to get the Phoenix Comicon trademark cancelled in court. In summary, San Diego-Comic Con motioned to have the Phoenix Comicon trademark cancelled because of “likelihood of confusion”. It seems now the case won’t be going in front of a judge as a “Voluntary Surrender of Registration” was given in a joint motion from both San Diego Comic-Con and Phoenix Comicon.
1. That Final Judgment be entered by the Board that Petitioner’s Petition for Cancellation based on: (1) Likelihood of confusion – Prior Registration; and (2) Likelihood of Confusion – Prior Use, be SUSTAINED and that Registration No.:
5,278,711 for the mark PHOENIX COMICON be CANCELLED.
2. That Final Judgment be entered by the Board that Counterclaiment’s Counterclaim for Cancellation based on: (1) Fraud on the USPTO; and (2) Genericness be DISMISSED, in its entirety.
In short, the Phoenix Comicon trademark will be cancelled and the counterclaim from Square-Egg will be dismissed. San Diego Comic-Con now has two big victories in the realm of legal matters as they won their case against Salt Lake Comic Con earlier in the year as well. To view the entire Voluntary Surrender of Registration document, click here. Square-Egg already took preemptive measures with changing the name of Phoenix Comicon to Phoenix Comic Fest for their upcoming May convention.
I refuse to accept this and San Diego CON can Bite Me. I would NOT attend their Con if they gave me Free Passes. From this point forward I will still refer to our Phoenix ComiCon because Fest sound stupid and more like a Festival than a Convention… This is a ridiculous claim. ComiCon are all over the County and World…
Word.
This is BS! I will not do coverage, or promotion for anything Comic Con International related. They shot themselves in the foot and screwed with the wrong community.
Wow, get the emotions out of it. Phoenix knew what it was doing when they co-opted the name. Frankly, if they hadn’t come to SLCC defense they probably wouldn’t have gotten on the radar.
SDCC is a long running non profit that can’t be associated with for profit events and must defend it’s trademark or lose it.
I’ll continue to support SDCC and Wondercon. PCF? We’ll see how it goes this year but it’s not looking good.