To maintain the validity of a trademark you would need to use it. Failing to do so it could lead to your trademark being expunged.
In this piece, we will be looking at how Billy Batson lost his alter ego to Carol Danvers.
In 1939 CC Beck and Bill Parker created Captain Marvel the alter ego of Billy Batson.
Captain Marvel made his debut appearance in 1940 in Whiz Comic (owned by Fawcett Comics). Captain Marvel was a hit and even outsold Superman. DC Comics did not like this and they sued Fawcett comics, DC claimed that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman.
After a lengthy legal battle, Fawcett settled with DC and they agreed to never publish Captain Marvel-related comics. The last Captain Marvel comic issued by Fawcett was published in 1953.
In 1972 DC Comics wanted to introduce new characters to their roster and decided to license the character of Captain Marvel from Fawcett, however, they had a challenge; In 1967 Marvel created their own Captain Marvel and trademarked the name. DC Comics could not use the name “Captain Marvel”.
Marvel Comics was able to do this because Fawcett had not used their Captain Marvel trademark in over a decade.
Marvel Comics version of Captain Marvel was not a hit but Marvel continued releasing new issues every month just retain their trademark.
DC Comics had to come up with a new name for Billy Batson’s alter ego and that is how Shazam! was born.
I think DC Comics was mad that, they couldn’t use the name Captain Marvel so they decided to title Shazam’s! earliest issues as “Shazam!: The Original Captain Marvel”.
Marvel Comics was obviously furious about this and they issued a cease and desist letter to DC. DC later changed the title to “Shazam!: The World’s Mightiest Mortal.”
Conclusion
Use it if you don’t want to lose it.
*All images are found on google images
https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/825/187683.html
https://twitter.com/senamisomoyo/status/1291331298821316608
https://www.mondaq.com/southafrica/trademark/945654/will-the-virus-get-your-trade-mark
