SALT LAKE CITY -- Organizers of Salt Lake Comic Con said they will not drop the words "Comic Con," despite a legal threat from the organizers of the San Diego Comic-Con.
"The show's going on as planned," Salt Lake Comic Con producer Dan Farr said at a news conference Wednesday.
FOX 13 first reported last month that the organizers of San Diego Comic-Con served a cease-and-desist letter on Salt Lake Comic Con, claiming an infringement on its intellectual property. Wednesday was the deadline for Salt Lake Comic Con organizers to respond.
"We have every right to use 'Comic Con,'" Salt Lake Comic Con co-founder Bryan Brandenburg told reporters.
Messages left with representatives for San Diego Comic-Con and Comic-Con International were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Farr and Brandenburg said they were only aware of Salt Lake Comic Con being singled out for an intellectual property infringement threat, despite hundreds of similar events being held around the country. The organizers insist that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has held the words "Comic Con" cannot be trademarked.
Still, Farr said Salt Lake Comic Con was pursuing its own trademark for its name, along with its other event, "FanX."
Farr acknowledged that the decision to drive a sports car wrapped with logos for Salt Lake Comic Con to California during San Diego Comic-Con upset that event's organizers. But Farr said San Diego Comic-Con couldn't stop it.
Talks between Salt Lake Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con organizers took place Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Brandenburg told FOX 13, but there appeared to be no resolution.
The next step would likely be a lawsuit.
Farr said any litigation would not affect the upcoming Salt Lake Comic Con, which is anticipating more than 120,000 attendees Sept. 4-6 at the Salt Palace.
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