Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: crossgen, marvel, trademarks

Marvel To Publish CrossGen Tales To Keep Disney Trademarks On Them

Here is the thing about trademarks. You have to jus them, and be seen to use them, to get to keep them. You can't just register a trademark and sit on it for five years, doing nothing, and still expect to keep it. So when Marvel Comics announce they are bringing back CrossGen in November, don't get too excited, CrossGen fans.

I mean, sure. CrossGen Tales #1 reprinting the original first issues of four CrossGen series, Mystic by Ron Marz and Brandon Peterson, Sigil by Mark Waid, Barbara Kesel, Chuck Dixon, Ben Lai, and Ray Lai, Ruse by Mark Waid and Butch Guice, and Soujourn by Ron Marz, Ian Edgington, and Greg Land, could be the beginning of a revival of the comic book line published by the late Marc Alessi that recreated a comic book creator bullpen, saw established creators do astounding work and discovered new talent that the current industry is based on. As well as emphasising the importance of cross continuity universe building, that is now the norm. But also… Disney bought CrossGen for the rights to Abadazad by J.M.DeMatteis and Mike Ploog. Disney-owned Marvel published a few Crossgen books a while ago that didn't take. And now, honestly? This looks more like a trademark maintaining publication.

Crossgen was first trademarked in 1999  Disney filed for ownership last in 2018. You are meant to show use of a trademark every five years at the minimum, and next year in… 2023. Five years since filing. So publishing a CrossGen comic in November 2022, might be a wise thing if you wanted to maintain that trademark for printing comics.

Might there be more to come? Maybe. Maybe not But it might be a handy place for Marvel to run a number of other Crossgen titles whose trademarks may also need maintaining. Because you never know, at some point, Disney may have a use for them all… note how they make sure to run the individual titles of the comics on the back cover. Marking the trade…

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