Friday a Federal Jury in the case of trademark infringement between San Diego Comic Con and Salt Lake City Comic Con rendered its decision. SLCC was found guilty of violating SDCC’s trademark. SDCC was looking for a penalty in the area of 12 million Dollars, however the Jury ruled the infringement was “non willful” and only imposed a penalty of $20,000.
SLCC is considering whether or not to appeal, there is also a proceeding underway to cancel SDCC’s trademark of the words “Comic Con”(both with and without the hyphen). Although SDCC has won this round, they would still be required to file a motion to force SLCC to change its events name, or they could simply do a licensing agreement, if the trademark office allows them to keep it.
This is not the last we have heard about this though.
