I was in a restaurant of that nameyesterday. It serves mediocre American bar/grill style fare. The walls are covered in depictions of Captain America and he features prominently on their logo. Nowhere on their menus or their website can I see anything regarding them licencing the character from Marvel. Does anyone know what the story is? Is this place just ripping off the character or is the character no longer protected IP?
Well, it doesn’t look like the restaurant actually uses the term “Captain America” - they add an “S” on the end to form “Captain Americas” (without an apostrophe). The artwork, though - not so much.
Marvel maintains the trademark on Captain America – unlike copyrights and patents, trademarks don’t just stop being valid after a period of time. As long as you’re still using them, you still own them. And Marvel is currently printing a book called “Captain America” and featuring a guy in a costume that looks rather like the one in the art depicted at that site who calls himself Captain America. And, while it doesn’t happen to be the same guy as the historic Cap under the mask (for the time being, at least), Marvel is still selling merchandise featuring the traditional Captain America and regularly reprinting older comics in which he appears.
I see a couple possibilities here. First, Marvel doesn’t know about them. Seems unlikely, but not out of the question. Second, Marvel knows but doesn’t care because the offending restaurant is small potatoes. I doubt this would stop the company from instituting a legal action, especially since the restaurant is selling merchandise featuring Cap’s iconic shield. Third, Marvel would do something about it, but the complexities and cost of an international suit aren’t worth the benefit. That seems possible, but I don’t know anything about how tough or expensive it is to litigate in Ireland. (Also possible that Irish law has a very different trademark system than we do, which might allow a place like this grandfather status. That’s just a guess.) And finally, that they are paying Marvel a licensing fee. Either of the latter two options seems likely to me. As for the lack of indicia saying the character belongs to Marvel, I admit that augurs against the licensing option. OTOH, you never heard of Hulk Hogan paying a licensing fee to Marvel for the use of his nom de guerre, but he did so for over a decade.
–Cliffy
Most old WWF merchandise features a disclaimer stating that “Hulk” is a trademark of Marvel and is used under license.
The use of the word “hulk” to mean a massive person dates back to the 16th century. Hogan was usually referred to as “Hulk Hogan,” not “The Hulk” or “The Incredible Hulk.” He was not routinely depicted as being green or gray, but was a generally a normal Caucasian flesh tone and had blond hair, not black.
“Captain America” is not a common noun. As far as I can tell, the name was coined for a specific character in 1941, and is still being used for that character and/or his successors. Captain Americas’ merchandise and Web site uses graphics that appear to be based on that characters’ appearance. The name and other elements appear to have been in use when the restaurant was founded.
Oh. Well. I wonder if that was really a case of legally having to pay licensing fees or more like “Fine, we’ll acknowledge your precious trademark, now stop hassling us.”
Further research indicates that, ironically, Hogan really pissed off Marvel by briefly becoming “Mr. America,” a persona allegedly patterned after Captain America.
From most likely to least likely:
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They do have a license, but they just don’t say so on the Web site.
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Marvel doesn’t know about them yet
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Marvel does know about them and is preparing to do something about it
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Marvel does know about them but is not sure yet how to enforce its rights in Ireland
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Marvel does know about them but has decided not to do anything about it
They’ve been around since 1971 and are present on the busiest shopping street in Dublin so I doubt number 2.
Hogan was called “The Incredible” Hulk Hogan when he first debuted in the old WWF. It’s even listed under his picture on his wiki page as one of his past ring names.
We saw one of these (possibly the same one you did) when we were on Grafton Street in Dublin over 12 years ago. IIRC, that one had a neon sign with a very Jack Kirvyesque Captain America on the sign. We didn’t go there, so I couldn’t say whether or not they’d gotten permission. But they’re practically across the street ftom Forbidden Planet Books, a SF bookstore and comic book store that sells Marvel Comics. There’s no way that they’re unaware of the copyright requirements.
Maybe Marvel figures it’s free publicity. Maybe it’s something else.
By the way, when I was in Scotland a year or so later, I stopped in a restaurant called “Uncle Buck’s” that was supposed to be typical American eats. It wasn’t. The meat was gristlely, and I’ve never seen chocolate syrup in the shade they served over their sundaes.
I’ll just shut up about wrestling now.
I love how a place overseas serving American food has nachos, enchiladas, and margaritas on the menu. No, I’m not being sarcastic, I really love it.
Dey dook our dooooooobbbs!
Shouldn’t that be Captains America?
Ironically, Marvel Entertainment, the corporate umbrella for Marvel comics, also manufactures action figures - including those of professional wrestlers. So Hulk Hogan pays a licensing fee to Marvel for the use of his character name and receives a licensing fee back from them for the use of his image.
Marvel and DC make a substantial amount of their income from licensing fees. It’s very unlikely that they wouldn’t prosecute anyone for any possible infringement of their characters.
Buying a license is, however, rather costly. Best guess would be that the restaurant got a good deal back in the 70s and has been lucky enough to retain it. I doubt that a modern day restaurant would be able to be profitable while maintaining a modern Marvel license.*
- Note that I’ve never been quoted the specific numbers for how much Marvel licensing fees are. But two companies I have worked for were in talks with them.
Stan Lee’s gonna sue sombody’s ass.
They sued a band called Captain America in the early 1990s and forced them to change their name. (They were subsequently known as Eugenius.) I still have one of the singles they put out as “Captain America”.
Captain America’s is probably too much hassle for Marvel to sue. It’s not a chain restaurant (although they recently opened a second store, no idea if it survived for long though).
They actually used to have a guy dress up as captain America and walk up and down Grafton Street.
The food isn’t great.
You didn’t miss much tbh. Forbidden Planet used to be on Dawson St. a street over from Grafton st. They’re on the quays now. Captain America is a well known Marvel character even here.
There are three stores in the chain, perhaps they have a licence that allows them to open stores in the Republic of Ireland only.