No Joke, Superman!

Clark Kent may be a champion of the underdog, but this is one David vs. Goliath story that will never appear in the Daily Planet. Back in 1979, student editors at Chicago's Richard J. Daley College decided to change their campus newspaper's name from the ominous sounding The Obstacle to the more light-hearted Daley Planet, after Superman's favorite newspaper. Funny? Certainly not to DC Comics, a division of Warner Communications Inc., which owns the Superman trademark.

After an unsuccessful attempt to pay the students $1,000 to drop Daley Planet from the masthead, Warner Communications sued, claiming trademark infringement, injury to business reputation and engagement in deceptive practices. "Great Caesar's ghost," the Daley Planet declaimed in consternation. "If we'd known there would be so much trouble, we'd have changed our name to the Gotham Globe, or the Daily Bugle. Then we'd only have to worry about bats and spiders knocking at our office, and not the Man of Steel."

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