By: JD Hardin
The battle has been raging since 2014, Con VS Con, West Coast VS Midwest, San Diego VS Salt Lake. What this writer sees as a petty and expensive display of male genitalia, has turned into front page news. And honestly, its pathetic.
The lawsuit has been tearing through courts and nerd circles for three years. In 2014, San Diego Comic-Con sued Salt Lake Comic Con for a trademark violation over the use of the term “comic con.” In response, Salt Lake Comic Con has protested, saying that a number of other events use the words “comic con.”
In this simple fact, they are beyond correct. Our biggest events in the country often use the specific words “Comic con”. If you’re skeptical of that last statement, just scroll to the bottom.
The idea of the biggest convention in the United States carrying on a crusade against the rest of the industry is beyond a little disturbing. What’s worse, the base of that crusade be based on the generic term “Comic-con”. While San Diego Comic Con, or Comic Con International is, without a doubt, the largest comic convention in the US, it in no way offers enough accessibility for fans across the country. Most fans can’t afford the tickets, travel, and time off of their jobs to attend the massive event. Even the fans that can, usually don’t have enough time to enjoy the convention in its entirety.
As a person trying to gather all the news possible, SDCC offers us the largest flood of information for the year. That still leaves another fifty one weeks in the year that news must be sourced from somewhere. NYCC, SLCC, and ECCC are some of the best events for big news, as well. Naturally, if Comic Con International has their way, these conventions would have to go through the cost prohibitive process of re-branding. The high cost of this would force most smaller conventions to shut down for years, if not indefinitely.
The conventions that do survive would have to recoup their losses in the best (and only) way they can, with higher ticket prices. Higher ticket prices tends to equal lower ticket sales, which after a few years would force a convention down the road of closure. Regardless of the outcome of the law suits, the extensive court costs and lawyer fees for both conventions must be made up in ticket price as well. Either way, the fans lose.
The fact that a larger public outcry is absent is rather shocking. The nerd community is one of the most unified fan groups in modern society. A loud enough public outcry from fans would most certainly see this quarrel fall to the wayside.
The Nerdery 