It’s the battle of the Comic-Cons, and it could be to the death! A current legal battle between the Geek Behemoth that is the San Diego Comic-Con and the sparky little con that could, Salt Lake City Comic Con (note the lack of hyphen), could have legal ramifications for all cons from coast to coast.
San Diego Comic-Con is sending a stern warning to Salt Lake City: Change the name of your con… or else!
The argument? San Diego is worried that people will think that Salt Lake City’s Comic Con is affiliated with San Diego’s Comic-Con. San Diego says the names are too similar, and therefore, Salt Lake needs to change — ASAP — or the mighty Comic-Con will bring a lawsuit against the plucky Salt Lake City upstart.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune , organizers of the Salt Lake Con say if they’re forced to change the name of their annual convention, thousands of other cons across the land will soon meet a similar fate.
Bryan Brandenburg, the co-founder of the Salt Lake City Comic Con, said:
“If they win against us, they have a precedence to do this to others.”
The Salt Lake City organizers reportedly compiled a partial list of other conventions around the country that use “Comic Con” in their name, including the New York Comic Con — the second biggest “Con” in the country, and over fifty others.
Brandenburg said that Salt Lake Comic Con is planning to officially responding to the San Diego Comic-Con next week, and the letter will possibly be co-signed by dozens of other conventions that have “Con” in their name. Clearly, Salt Lake isn’t planning on backing down from San Diego. The organizers in Utah have already garnered the help of the CEO of Wizard World, which organizes 24 Comic Cons around the country every year.
The differences between San Diego’s Comic-Con and Salt Lake’s Comic Con couldn’t be more striking. San Diego is a 44 year-old festival of geekdom that now attracts billion dollar studios and A-List stars and directors. Over 130,000 people filed into the San Diego Convention Center last weekend.
On the other hand, Salt Lake City’s Comic Con has only been around for less than a year. However, in that time they’ve drawn over 172,000 fans to two events within eight months of each other. Not too shabby for the little con that could. That successful target put them in the books as the third largest comic book convention in America, a title that won them the attention — and ire — of the San Diego Comic-Con.
Comic-Con or Comic Con: Does it really matter? Aren’t we all part of the same Nerd-verse?
