History Main / DisneyOwnsThisTrope

* After Ken Penders won his lawsuit with Archie Comics over his characters in their ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic, he made it clear many times he would sue for even the vaguest similarity to his characters or basic concepts. Some examples include the idea of a Sonic multiverse, as well as evil Sonics in general. Given his aforementioned victory, this intimidated Archie enough to skim around a Sonic multiverse when the ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite Worlds Unite]]'' crossover event was released, instead opting for [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover a more expensive]] [[FranchiseKiller (and fatal)]] [[LoopholeAbuse solution]].

* After Ken Penders won his lawsuit with Archie Comics over his characters in their ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic, he made it clear many times he would sue for even the vaguest similarity to his characters or basic concepts. Some examples include the idea of a Sonic multiverse, as well as evil Sonics in general. Given his aforementioned victory, this intimidated Archie enough to skim around a Sonic multiverse when the ''[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite Worlds Unite]]'' crossover event was released, instead opting for [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover a more expensive]] [[LoopholeAbuse solution]].

Trademarks are distinctive signs or symbols used by a person or company to promote and differentiate their products and services from the competitors. They typically consist of a name, word, phrase, logo, or combination of the four, and are distinctly associated with their brand. See [[UsefulNotes/{{Trademark}} the article on the subject]] for an in-depth explanation.

Trademarks belong to a category called "intellectual property rights", alongside similar concepts called copyrights and patents. A full discussion of their definitions and purpose is beyond the scope of this entry (we have a separate comprehensive article explaining how trademarks works, [[UsefulNotes/{{Trademark}} click here for details]]), but the three terms all bear a common theme: They acknowledge creation or ownership of ''something'' and provide the owner with some control over how it gets used. If somebody else attempts to use it commercially without the owner's permission (often with an exchange of money involved for such permission), the owner can take them to court and sue for damages.

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic book supervillain, The Prankster, once copyrighted all of the letters in the alphabet and tried to extract royalties from anyone who used them while writing.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story "The Laughing Fish", the Joker dumped a version of his toxin into the local waters, and then tried to claim ownership of all the fish that now sported Joker faces. When the patent office explains that patent law ''doesn't'' work like this, he responds with attempted murder.

* The MediaNotes/MotionPictureAssociation holds trademarks on all of their rating icons to ensure distributors do not misrepresent the content of their films without obtaining a rating from them. During the early days of the [=MPA=]'s rating system, they deliberately did not trademark the X rating so that filmmakers could self-apply the mark to films that would merit the rating without running afoul of the [=MPA=]'s lawyers. [[GoneHorriblyWrong This led to a number of adult film studios self-applying the rating]], and it became synonymous with explicit films at that time. This was the very reason the X rating was changed to the copyrighted [=NC-17=] in 1990. And even then, the actual rating's description changed in a way to make sure that the trademark didn't lapse, from "No Children Under 17" to "No One 17 and Under Admitted"[[note]]which actually means "only those 18 and up admitted"[[/note]] when the [=MPA=] moved the admissable age for viewing up a year.