ReedPOP on the SDCC-SLCC lawsuit

11 DECEMBER 2017

Last Friday a fascinating court case came to an end: the trademark lawsuit between CCI and Salt Lake Comic Con was decided in CCI's favor.


Reactions have ranged from "what a stupid lawsuit" to "Salt Lake was asking for it" to "I thought all Comic Cons were run by the same company" and more. But one of the most dramatic reactions has also been one of the most unrealistic: that this is the beginning of a trademark tidal wave that will force every Con to change its name.

That just isn't going to happen. If you have any inkling of what attorneys cost, you can understand that waging a legal battle for 2.5 years likely cost CCI far more than the paltry $20,000 they got from this trial. There's no way they can take on every Con in the world. And CCI isn't some kind of warlord that wants to crush every other Con under its heel. I suppose they could send out Cease and Desist letters and request events to enter into licensing agreements with them, as some have done already. But we're not going to see a rash of name changes where San Diego is the only Comic-Con left standing.

ReedPOP and all those other Comic Cons

That brings us to ReedPOP, the apex Con master in the world. I'm not saying that to cast shade on CCI, just pointing out that the vast number of events they manage dwarfs everyone else. It's reached the point where if our planet undergoes some kind of massive dying-off that rescrambles nation-states, I fully expect ReedPOP to have their own continent where it's Comic Con all the time.

So I asked them what they thought and if they foresaw any interaction with the naming of their own many Cons. Here's their statement:

"We haven’t seen anything issued from the Court or the jury other than what has appeared in the press. Until there is a final disposition of that case, we will reserve comment.  Nevertheless, we expect there to be no impact on our continued use of the New York Comic Con name for our annual event now well over a decade in existence or use of any of our other proprietary event names."

So yes, we will have other Comic Cons and they will keep growing and multiplying and fascinating us. This lawsuit (which I still doubt is over) isn't going to change anything for attendees. Not anything that matters.