A courtroom battle over a fitness firm's effort to trade
mark the words "Superman Workout" has ended with the Man
of Steel walloping them good and proper.
DC Comics, which has rights to the Superman name, successfully
appealed in the Federal Court against the fitness company's
lodgement of the name in the Register of Trade Marks.
As the Sydney Morning Herald reported, Justice Annabelle Bennett
considered many uses of the Superman name, including German
philosopher Nietzsche's 1883 concept of an ideal
'Ubermensch' or 'Super Man' with greater spiritual
powers who is above notions of good and evil.
DC Comics invented Superman as a comic strip character in 1938
and argued that when people hear the name Superman they think of a
superhero in blue with red cape and secret identity as mild
mannered reporter Clark Kent.
