One is a sprawling smorgasbord of B-list sci-fi celebrities, salivating fan boys and Star Wars stormtroopers, occupying the Metro Toronto Convention Centre each spring.

The other is, well, a sprawling smorgasbord of B-list sci-fi celebrities, salivating fan boys and Star Wars stormtroopers, also occupying the Metro Toronto Convention Centre each spring.

While Toronto Comicon and Toronto Comic Con might operate in the same galaxy, on the city's comic convention battleground they are light-years apart.

Those in the industry refer to this dogfight as the “Con Wars.”

And there's a lot at stake in a simple name.

So says Hobbystar Marketing, a local sports and entertainment agency behind the 17-year-old Toronto Comicon, which recently filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Wizard World Inc., the New York-based company helming Toronto Comic Con, for what it claims is an inappropriate and confusing misuse of its convention's trademark name.

“(The lawsuit) is to protect a brand we developed 17 years ago, and to protect the consumer against an inferior product that they mistake to be ours,” said Aman Gupta, Hobbystar's president and CEO. “Customers think that they are the same thing.”

Hobbystar seeks a permanent injunction against any use of the words “Toronto Comic Con” by Wizard World, according to a statement of claim that was filed April 12.

Two days later, Wizard World ran its bustling weekend convention featuring, among many others, actors Dean Stockwell of Battlestar Galactica and Jeri Ryan, who played a borg-cum-human on Star Trek: Voyager, seasons 4 through 7.

Wizard World refused repeated requests for comment on Thursday.

The lawsuit is the latest, and most litigious, salvo in the nearly decade-long power struggle between the two conventions. Comic Con was formerly run by Paradise Comics, a Yonge St. store, before Wizard World purchased it this year. In the mid-2000s, Hobbystar was accused of running free fan appreciation events ahead of Paradise's April convention to steal customers. Hobbystar has also been accused of running similar gambits against anime and Star Trek conventions.

Until this year, Comic Con was held at the Direct Energy Centre, which, in Gupta's eyes, was a manageable distance. But now, sharing the same convention floor and a similar name supposedly threw comic fiends for a loop.

“We dealt with this throughout the weekend of our event and had to turn people away, leaving them disgruntled,” Gupta said. “It's a shame, but there is genuine confusion.”

Hobbystar would not disclose information as to possible revenue losses.

George Zotti, who co-owns Silver Snail, a classic Queen St. comic book store, said those who might make that type of mistake are not ardent comic or sci-fi geeks.

“Anybody in the community is distinctly aware of the difference (between) the two cons,” said Zotti. “None of us refer to the ‘Wizard Con' as anything other than the ‘Wizard Con.' Anyone saying, ‘Did you go to the Toronto Comic Con?' isn't that big of a comic fan.”

Each convention offers fans something a little different, said Joel Kilmartin, manager of the Comic Book Lounge. The smaller Comicon, with roughly 13,000 attendees, tends to focus on the industry's bread and butter — comics — whereas Comic Con, of which Wizard World runs versions in five other cities, steers toward celebrities.

“The closest thing I can compare (Comic Con) to is a vaudeville circuit,” Kilmartin said. “The same people who do Wizard World Chicago Comic Con do Wizard World Toronto Comic Con.”

The suit also alleges that Wizard World duplicitously said Hobbystar threatened to bar convention vendors and exhibitors from participating in its summertime Fan Expo Canada, believed to be one of the largest comic conventions in North America, if they ran booths at Comic Con.

Hobbystar calls the accusation defamatory. “This statement is false and we take this behaviour very seriously,” Gupta said.

Hobbystar does not hold a Canadian Intellectual Property Office trademark for Toronto Comicon, but the company can still stake legal rights to the unregistered trademark if it proves Wizard World's use damaged its long-standing brand's reputation.