Houston Convention Bureau Claims Trademark Infringement After Buying Into The Comic-Con Industry

from the how-heroic dept

Wed, Mar 23rd 2016 11:23pm — Timothy Geigner

When I wrote about the monumentally silly trademark dispute between the San Diego Comic-Con and the Salt Lake City Comic Con, I didn't appreciate the simple nature of that trademark dispute. Sure, the idea that the phrase comic-con, or comic con, could be trademarked seemed wrong. The phrase is arguably both generic and descriptive, after all. But at least the dispute was simple.

A trademark battle currently underway in Texas is less so, unfortunately. This dispute involves two relatively new comic conventions, Houston's nickname of "Space City", and the city's convention bureau buying into the convention industry itself.

Houston's convention bureau is suing the operators of a popular local convention over the use of "Space City" in its name, claiming it infringes on a 12-year-old trademark. The convention in question, Space City Comic Con, also happens to compete with a similar event that is half-owned by the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau itself. The bureau acquired a 50 percent stake in the more established Comicpalooza last September, spokesman A.J. Mistretta said.

Both events bring in television and film stars for appearances that attract thousands of autograph buyers. Fans come dressed as their favorite characters from science fiction, anime and super-hero fantasies to browse exhibits, purchase items from vendors and play video and table-top games. The fests charge comparable admission fees.

Now, there's several things we can dig into here, but let's focus instead on the timeline of events to get a good understanding of why this dispute is dumb and contrary to the purpose of trademark law. This isn't laid out well in the link for some reason, but I'll make it easy for you.

2004: the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau is granted a trademark for "Space City" for use in promoting tourism, business and conventions in the Houston area.
2008: Comicpalooza began as a small comics convention in Houston and has grown larger since.
2012: Space City Comic Con began as a small comics convention in Houston and has grown larger since.
2015: the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau acquires a 50% stake in Comicpalooza.
2016: the Convention and Visitors Bureau sues Space City Comic Con for using "space city" for which it has the 12 year old trademark.

Any reading of that timeline leads to the obvious conclusion: the Bureau didn't give a damn about a comic convention's use of "space city" until it was heavily invested in a competing convention. That the name went unchallenged for several years is a wonderful indication that, assuming the Bureau wants to claim infringement, it wasn't bothering to police its trademarks properly. The article quotes a rep for the Bureau claiming it was unaware of the comics convention, which seems strange since knowing and promoting such conventions is the entire point of the Bureau to begin with.

And even setting aside the problematic timeline and all of its implied opportunism, Space City Comic Con can further defend itself by pointing out that the term "space city" at this point has become a generic nickname for Houston, harkening back to the glory days of America's space program.

One possible line of defense for Space City Comic Con is to prove that "Space City" is a generic term that has become synonymous with Houston, said Bruce Patterson, intellectual property lawyer with Patterson and Sheridan in Houston. The bureau also has to prove "Space City" is famous, said Amanda Greenspon, trademark lawyer with Munck Wilson Mandala in Dallas.

"It's not just enough to be famous in Texas. You have to be famous around the country, she said. "I don't know if 'Space City' is famous in Arkansas, North Dakota or New York."

All around, it's just a slimy look for Houston's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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Filed Under: comic-con, comicon, comicpalooza, houston, space city, trademark
Companies: houston convention and visitors bureau, space city comic con

14 Comments

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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 24 Mar 2016 @ 12:06am

I am shocked just shocked that someone would use a trademark that had sat forgotten for years to attempt to enrich themselves. Why compete when you can litigate?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 3:57am

"Houston, We have a problem!"
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 4:46am

I thoughtyou (td) has argued in the past that a name holder does not HAVE to attack every single use of the name or similar name but here you say that because they didnt attack it initialy, they dont get to defend it now.
Seems like they have a legitimate case to me.
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RD, 24 Mar 2016 @ 6:05am

Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 24th, 2016 @ 4:46am
Trademark != copyright.

Learn the difference.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Mar 2016 @ 6:50am

Re:
No, we've argued that someone w/a trademark can be selective on defending it when there is an actual chance for customer confusion and/or competition within the same marketplace. In this case, there was no confusion or chance because the mark holder wasn't in the industry until it bought in at a later date. I'm not sure why this is confusing?
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 24 Mar 2016 @ 6:55am

The bureau also has to prove "Space City" is famous, said Amanda Greenspon, trademark lawyer with Munck Wilson Mandala in Dallas.

"It's not just enough to be famous in Texas. You have to be famous around the country, she said. "I don't know if 'Space City' is famous in Arkansas, North Dakota or New York."

And that would be difficult. I've lived all over the country, and I've never heard of "Space City" being readily identifiable with Houston, the way "The Windy City" is Chicago and "Motor City" is Detroit. Is anyone here familiar with the term?
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Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 24 Mar 2016 @ 7:43am

Re:
I've lived all over the country, and I've never heard of "Space City" being readily identifiable with Houston,
Well I live several thousand miles away on another continent and have never been to Houston and I've heard the nickname "Space City" for it... does that count?
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James Burkhardt (profile), 24 Mar 2016 @ 8:53am

Re: Re:
Because reductionist arguements are reductionist and love to develop straw men against their simplistic understanding of a nuanced topic.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 8:54am

Having been to that convention a few times, Houston has been giving them trouble about the name from the start.

-First it was "space city con" and the bureau complained then.
-2014 was "the Houston con" which nobody even recognized and so was a much smaller event.
-Finally 2015 I think was after the salt lake comic-con trademark win, so they went with "space city comic con" as a descriptive name.

Again, this is my experience as an attendee for '13 and '14 and what I heard at the time.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 9:31am

Reading some of these comments has been really interesting to me. I actually live in Houston, and have actually never heard anyone living here refer to the place as "space city", so it's very interesting to read some comments that people have actually heard that who don't actually live in the state. ( especially since almost everyone I know works in the space industry in some fashion). The first time I ever actually heard the term was when I went to the first year of space city con in 2012. And I am in a class of people who knows a lot of people go to comic conventions of these sorts, and people just don't confuse Space City con with comicpalooza around here - there's just no confusion around that from anyone I've ever talk to
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 12:13pm

Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 24th, 2016 @ 4:46am
Thats a bizarre reply. It is a trademark story, tagged trademark and i mentioned trademark.
Posting does not necessarily mean adding to the discussion.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 2:44pm

Re:
never heard of it before today
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2016 @ 8:07pm

Re: Re:
I agree dh. There was no reason to go after the mark because they were not in that industry. Now they are in that industry so they raise the issue. That makes it valid to address it now. This is why the timeline argument in the article does not make sense. Before the whole td staff blindly jumps on my comments, keep in mind i am a big td fan and not the typical troll.
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Tanner Andrews (profile), 28 Mar 2016 @ 12:29am

possible consumer confusion
Space City

Surely they mean Huntsville or Titusville.
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