US Registry Cancels Marvel And DC's Shared "SUPER HEROES" Trade Marks

I was very surprised to learn that Marvel and DC, industry titans and rivals, have for many decades jointly owned a number of US Federal trade marks for the term SUPER HEROES (Nos. 1179067, 1140452, 3674448) and SUPER HERO (No.825835).

These trade mark registrations had been in force for decades, and protected a variety of goods including t-shirts, costumes, and toy figures.

The combined forces behind Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Ironman were no match however for Superbabies Limited, a UK company that has recently successfully cancelled these USTM registrations.

Looking into the saga, it appears that DC sent a cease and desist letter and "attempted to block" the UK business' efforts to promote SUPER BABIES ("a team of superpowered superhero babies") in light of their earlier registered rights in SUPER HEROES. Superbabies Limited therefore retaliated by filing a Petition to Cancel the SUPER HEROES registrations - a copy of which can be seen here.