I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman… and also the subject of an ongoing row between DC Comics and a Spanish football club.
The dispute between the US publisher and Valencia CF appears to have resurfaced again following the club’s centenary celebrations.
Valencia’s crest has, since 1919, carried a symbol of a black bat. DC’s interests centre around it’s resemblance to the Batman logo, albeit created in 1939.
While the club’s additional 20 years of usage, plus the fact that the bat has been long associated with the regions of Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands since the 13th century, would appear to stand them in good stead, the debate is believed to centre on a new design released this month.
It is this centenary design which appears to have disgruntled DC Comics. The US company is understood to have submitted a complaint to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
A spokesperson for Valencia responded in a typically bullish manner, telling newspaper El Confidencial: “We are not going to stop using the bat because DC Comics says it, there is no commercial brand that has a worldwide exclusive on bats."
"When this club played with a bat in the chest, in the United States they were chasing bison."
These two have previous. In 2014, Valencia revealed that DC Comics ‘filed an objection’ to a trademark registration the club were pursuing but that no lawsuit or claim had been made against the club.
