Mr. Scratch Off hopes he scratches off a winner in this trademark dispute. DC Comics has requested an extension of time to oppose the trademark registration for Mr. Scratch Off, the logo for a lotto-type scratch off printing company.

Mr. Scratch Off is a division of Lawton Printers, Inc. Lawton enables customers to create custom scratch off cards and tickets that are akin to lottery tickets. These cards can be used for promotions, charities or for any other reason you want people to hunt down a coin to do some scratching. An example of what Lawton prints can be seen to the right. Since 2009, in association with its business, Lawton has employed the services of Mr. Scratch Off to promote its brand. You can see Mr. Scratch Off below and it is not hard to see the similarities between him and Superman.

The first story of Superman was published back in 1938 and, arguable, he is the most famous and popular comic book character of all time. DC Comics has been using the trademark ever since. DC Comics owns numerous registered marks for the name, SUPERMAN, the diamond logo also some for the look of Superman. The black and white image of Superman is an actual registered trademark filed with the USPTO.

Yesterday, DC Comics requested and was granted an extension of time to oppose the registration of the MR. SCRATCH OFF trademark. This is the usual first step to opposing a mark and allows the parties time to work out a resolution of the dispute, prepare its opposition or even walk away from an opposition if a fight isn’t warranted. The Trademark Office will refuse registration of a mark if is confusingly similar to another mark. Here, the test is: would a customer when looking at Mr. Scratch Off get confused and believe that he is affiliated with or associated with Superman and DC Comics. So how about you, do you think people would confuse Mr. Scratch-Off with Superman? We shall see what happens in this battle between superheroes.

