Ghost-Spider May Have a Problem

Spider-Gwen, a younger, female character with the fourth-wall-breaking appeal of Deadpool (since she knows she’s in a comic) version of Spider-Woman (her original name), is one of the characters in the new Marvel Rising franchise. Only there, she’s been renamed “Ghost-Spider”, because “Spider-Gwen” is a silly in-joke. (I’m guessing. I don’t know that Marvel has made a statement why the name change.)

Which may be a problem. Marvel has history with the name, effectively reusing it. According to CBR, the Ghost-Spider name “had been used for a character on the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series (using Spider-Man’s Future Foundation costume).” However, now that Marvel wants to trademark their new characters, which will likely have merchandise made for them, two companies want to oppose the trademark, according to Techdirt.

One opposition likely makes some sense and might be rather limited to the sports equipment and apparel markets that Marvel asked for in addition to comic books. That one comes from golf club manufacturer Taylor Made, which happens to make a putter line called Ghost Spider, with the apparel to match it. It’s not an objection to the comic book trademark, but rather to the more wider ranging products that Marvel is claiming a trademark for.

Also filing are the lawyers for car company BMW, although no one seems to know why, in that case.