Posted in: Comics, Swipe File | Tagged: Comics, dc, dc logo, discovery

Swipe File: DC Comics And The Discovery Channel

This is the logo for the UK TV channel Discovery History.

And this is a trademarked logo by DC Comics and DC Entertainment for future undefined use. Possibly preserved onions.

I asked an intellectual property lawyer about the seeming similarity. He told me;

Well, that seems to be a logo for a UK-based cable network associated with the US Discovery Channel.  So, it's probably registered in the UK, but not necessarily in the US, which means the existing DC registration wouldn't conflict – unless DC registers its logo in the UK, which they might, eventually.  If that happened, there might be a conflict, but my gut feeling is that there wouldn't be a problem here solely because the two logos look vaguely similar.  DC's lawyers could argue that the "page-turn" element is coming from the opposite side of each logo, that there's no "C" in the Discovery logo, and most importantly, that they're in completely different channels of trade, and the likelihood of confusion between the marks in the public is low.  That's especially true if the Discovery mark incorporates the words.

Anyway, it's interesting, but there are a million ways an experienced TM attorney could deal with the issues described above.  Trademarks (and copyrights and other areas of IP law) can be sort of subjective, but I don't see this particular one giving DC too much of a problem.  It would be interesting to be wrong, though.

In Swipe File we present two or more images that resemble each other to some degree. They may be homages, parodies, ironic appropriations, jokes, coincidences or works of the lightbox. We trust you, the reader, to make that judgment yourself. If you are unable to do so, please return your eyes to their maker before any further damage is done. The Swipe File doesn't judge, it's interested more in the process of creation, how work influences other work, how new work comes from old, and sometimes how the same ideas emerge simultaneously, as if their time has just come. The Swipe File was named after the advertising industry habit where writers and artist collect images and lines they admire to inspire them in their work. It was swiped from the Comic Journal who originally ran this column, as well as the now defunct Swipe Of The Week website.

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