SAN DIEGO _ A jury Friday sided with San Diego's Comic-Con in its long-running legal battle over the rights to the name, "comic con," used by a rival convention in Utah.
The verdict, handed down in San Diego federal court, found that the trademark belongs to Comic-Con International and that Salt Lake Comic Con and its founders had infringed on the right to that name.
While it is likely that organizers of the Utah event will appeal, Friday's verdict culminates a testy squabble that began three years ago when Salt Lake's producers drove around downtown San Diego for two days during the July convention in a $200,000 Audi R8 Spyder wrapped with an image of "Salt Lake Comic Con."
Comic-Con then sued the producers of the Utah pop culture gathering in 2014, alleging trademark infringement on the use of "comic con" in its name. The lawsuit came after the Salt Lake producers, Dan Farr of Dan Farr Productions and Bryan Brandenberg, ignored letters to cease-and-desist using the name.
In a statement Friday, organizers of the San Diego convention said they were grateful for the jury's decision.
"San Diego Comic Convention has used the Comic-Con trademarks in connection with our comics and popular arts conventions for almost 50 years," organizers said. "We have invested substantial time, talent and resources in our brand resulting in world-wide recognition of the Comic-Con convention held annually in San Diego ... From the beginning all that we asked of the defendants was to stop using our Comic-Con trademarks. Today we obtained a verdict that will allow us to achieve this."
Representatives of Salt Lake Comic Con declined Friday to comment on the verdict, but had earlier said that if it lost in court, it would appeal. Salt Lake had maintained that the comic-con name is generic and that there are dozens of events around the country that use some form of the name.
In closing arguments, San Diego Comic-Con's attorney, Callie Bjurstrom, said, "This case is about stealing, taking something that is not yours, something you have no right to. It's about right, and it's about wrong."
San Diego Comic-Con had sought as much as $12 million in damages from Farr, Brandenburg and Salt Lake Comic Con, but the jury awarded them only $20,000, concluding that the trademark infringement was not willful.
Despite multiple rival comic book conventions, Comic-Con, which has been in San Diego for nearly 50 years, sells out every year, attracting more than 130,000 attendees.
