Charity, trademark and superheroes

Today's a class prep day for me, and the topic: charity & intellectual property. It's an important topic, particularly because charities tend to assume that because they're charities others' IP is fair game to take. I have an overview post on this topic over at Blog@ today, and don't be surprised if I return to the issue both here and there.

The image above, by the way, is from a charitable initiative that is at least trying not to use other companies' characters without a license: Web874 Graphics' Become a Superhero campaign, which collects and distributes holiday gifts for needy kids. The pic is from the new BAS comic book.

In related comics and culture news, the NY Times has a great feature on how "a comic-book figure, the hero of the manga series “The Drops of the Gods,” has quickly become the most influential voice in Asia’s wine markets."