Should San Diego Be Allowed To Trademark The Name Comic Con?

[Space Cop]

I just found this thread. I only skimmed it some, but I had no idea this was a thing. I actually did assume that all the other cities that have Comic Con were affiliated (like run by the same organization). None of them are?

[Mister Ed]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

I just found this thread. I only skimmed it some, but I had no idea this was a thing. I actually did assume that all the other cities that have Comic Con were affiliated (like run by the same organization). None of them are?

Wow, I guess SDCC might have had more of a case than I thought, if you actually assumed that. I assumed the opposite, that they were just comic conventions using the logical generic term for such.

Some conventions WERE affiliated, but most were not.

(More are affiliated now than used to be, I think, as I believe that SDCC, in an attempt to bolster their claims in the suit, offered affiliation free of charge to some other Comic Cons, in return for those cons acknowledging that SDCC had a right to the term. That happened here in Portland, anyway.)

[Sylent_Asassin]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

I just found this thread. I only skimmed it some, but I had no idea this was a thing. I actually did assume that all the other cities that have Comic Con were affiliated (like run by the same organization). None of them are?

Very few of them are affiliated, as it turns out. Reed Pop runs the most cons: NYCC, ECCC, PAX, C2E2, Star Wars Celebration and a few others, many of which are outside the US. Wizard World is its own entity, CCI runs SDCC and WonderCon. Salt Lake City Con has their own two conventions (SLCC and Fan Experience). AceCon has several shows scattered throughout the US. Besides the aforementioned, most other cons are small, singular, unaffiliated shows.

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

Wow, I guess SDCC might have had more of a case than I thought, if you actually assumed that. I assumed the opposite, that they were just comic conventions using the logical generic term for such. Some conventions WERE affiliated, but most were not. . .

Originally Posted by Sylent_Asassin

Very few of them are affiliated, as it turns out. Reed Pop runs the most cons: NYCC, ECCC, PAX, C2E2, Star Wars Celebration and a few others, many of which are outside the US. Wizard World is its own entity, CCI runs SDCC and WonderCon. Salt Lake City Con has their own two conventions (SLCC and Fan Experience). AceCon has several shows scattered throughout the US. Besides the aforementioned, most other cons are small, singular, unaffiliated shows.

Well, I could be unusually gullible or it might be because I'm more familiar with horror conventions, which do have such branding. For instance, the one I usually go to is Monster Mania, but they have a convention in Philadelphia area and another in the Baltimore area. They both have the same name but with the city designation and I know for a fact they're run by the same company. Likewise, the biggest horror convention (Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors) has different conventions in Chicago, NY, and a main one in LA, but with the name.

Maybe because of that, I just assumed (without bothering to ever look it up) that NYCC was an east-coast offshoot of SDCC.

The biggest comic convention I ever went to was in Philadelphia called Comic Fest. Since it clearly wasn't trying to be Comic-Con and since I was aware of a whole other related convention set from Wizard World, I guess I always just assumed that if it had the same ending name it was the same organizers. [At least I assume Wizard World Chicago is still related to Wizard World Philadelphia.]

Lesson learned. On the other hand, I don't know that it means much. My thinking on what con to attend would be based more on location and guests, not so much "I recognize that name and trust it no matter where it is."