Amazing Spider-Man 2 Creators Marvel & DC Banning the Word “Superhero” Says Graham Jules, Author of Business Zero to Superhero

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Business Zero To Superhero

It's a battle of the superheroes! Marvel and DC tangle UK author in legal web

(PRWEB) April 16, 2014

Graham Jules, a British author who has written a business start-up book for entrepreneurs called ‘Business Zero To Superhero’ received a letter from Marvel & DC’s solicitors opposing the use of the word ‘superhero’ in the title of his book. In a radio interview with the BBC and The Mail On Sunday, Jules says: “I was very shocked, I’m a new author and small business and I’m now in the position of fighting or scrapping the entire book”.

He says: “I cannot fight Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man all by myself! Having looked into this further I can see Marvel & DC have tried this before, threatening small publishers from using the word superhero in their work. It’s not very fair, superhero is a word used by many comic books and creative writers.”

Have Marvel & DC transformed into Sue-perman? On further investigation it appears DC & Marvel have held the trademark “Super heroes” since 1979, however lawyers are divided as to whether this should ever have been granted. Apparently there is a strong case that the word super hero is “generic” or in common every day usage and as such should be free for all to use. Similar cases such as the word Escalator and Aspirin are trademarks that have become every day words. Jules says: “As a small business and new author, I do not have the resources to compete with Marvel & DC, but I am willing to give it a go…” Hope he finds his way out of this legal web soon!

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