BATMAN

What this record means

The record shows that the mark “BATMAN” is live and registered on the Principal Register, owned by DC COMICS, a general partnership organized in New York. The registration covers entertainment services, specifically television and animated cartoon programs, and the mark has been in use since 1966. A similar name would raise the closest concern in the same field of television and animated cartoon services, because that is the exact scope of the registered mark. The record does not give DC COMICS control over every use of the word “BATMAN”; it only protects that specific combination of goods and services. There is no prosecution history indicating a descriptiveness refusal or Supplemental Register placement, so the mark was accepted as a distinctive service mark. The latest maintenance event is the renewal noted on January 7, 2022. No oppositions, cancellations, or other enforcement actions appear in the supplied history. For someone looking to use a similar name, the risk is that any use in television or animated cartoon services could be seen as infringing, while uses in unrelated fields would be farther from the record’s scope.