There is a growing movement of fans who are perturbed by the proliferation of Punisher logos being worn by police in the middle of the protests over George Floyd's death around the country (and the world). Many fans across social media platforms have been asking Marvel (and its parent company, Disney) to take a stand against the cops using the logo of Marvel's comic book vigilante.

However, while many fans would love for Marvel to tell the cops that they cannot use the trademarked skull logo of the Punisher, Marvel is likely stuck without a whole lot of legal recourse for achieving a ban like that.

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One area where there is confusion is over whether Marvel can even enforce a trademark on the Punisher's logo, since it is seemingly "just" a skull and, therefore, would be too generic to trademark. That is not the case, though, as the Punisher's logo (designed by Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr.) is clearly a distinctly stylized skull, and its distinctive design certainly can be trademarked.

The key problem with enforcing the use of the trademark with police officers, though, is found in the word trademark itself. A trademark, simply put, is a mark that is used in trade. This means that the intellectual property is being used in commerce. If the intellectual property is not being used in commerce, there is not a whole lot that the owners of the trademark can do about people using the trademark. A notable example would be Super Bowl parties. People have them every year at their homes. However, when bars or restaurants advertise such parties, they are forced to note that the party is for "The Big Game," since "Super Bowl," of course, is a trademarked term owned by the National Football League (NFL). The difference, then, is that when you are having a party at your house, you are not using the term in commerce. A bar or a restaurant, however, would be. So you can use the trademarked term while the bar/restaurant cannot. The most infamous example of this sort of thing was when Disney threatened a Florida daycare center over unauthorized murals of Disney characters on their walls. You can draw Mickey Mouse on your kid's wall and that's fine. If you use it as part of your business, though, it is using the mark in commerce and the trademark owner can (and often will) come after you.

That's the same basic problem with Marvel and the Punisher logo worn by so many police officers. As noted, the protection for trademarks generally goes towards people using the term to make money off of the logo. Without that aspect in play, trademark owners cannot do much to make people stop using their intellectual property. Once you have purchased a fully licensed piece of merchandise, you gain a broad right to use the merchandise as you wish. It would be similar to a cop wearing a Boston Red Sox cap. Major League Baseball cannot tell a cop that they are not allowed to wear a Red Sox cap.

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A trickier issue is when police officers create their own Punisher logos. In 2013, the "Black Lives Matter" movement was launched to protest the systemic racism and violence that African Americans face in the United States. The protesters particularly spotlighted police killings of African Americans, which, in turn, tied into protests against racial profiling, police brutality and the overall mistreatment of African Americans within the American criminal justice system. A year later, police groups debuted a "Blue Lives Matter" response movement and a number of "Blue Lives Matter" groups have incorporated the Punisher logo into "Blue Lives Matter" posters, decals and things of that nature.

This is a grayer area, but even here, it is unclear whether Marvel's trademark over the Punisher logo can allow them to tell people that they cannot use the Punisher logo for non-commercial uses. If the groups were to sell the posters and/or decals, that would be a whole other matter. If they are restricting their usage to just painting the logo on the side of their vehicle, though, then it is likely that the cops would be protected by their First Amendment right to free expression. The police have chosen to express themselves through an association with the Punisher. That is certainly something that people can criticize, but the cops likely have a First Amendment right to do so.

Along those lines, then, one thing that Marvel can do is to denounce the use of the logo, something the company has already done. When asked about its stance on cops using the Punisher's logo, Marvel pointed to a Punisher comic book that was published last year as its position on cops using the Punisher symbol. In July 2019, Punisher #13 (by Matthew Rosenberg, Szymon Kudranski, Antonio Fabela and VC's Cory Petit), the Punisher is badly injured in a fight with a Hydra agent and he is accosted by a pair of police officers. It seems like the Punisher might be arrested, but he is surprised to learn that these police officers are sympathetic to his cause and have adopted his symbol as their own, featuring it on their squad car.

A disgusted Punisher tears the logo off of their car and explains to them, "We're not the same. You took an oath to uphold the law. You help people. I gave all that up a long time ago. You don't do what I do. Nobody does." He then tells them that if they want to follow someone as a symbol, they should follow Captain America instead.

Another area where Marvel can use their intellectual property rights is to crack down on the unlicensed merchandise out there that is often purchased and marketed directly both to cops and servicemen and women. For instance, Marvel cannot tell a cop that they cannot wear a Punisher T-shirt, but if that T-shirt was produced by an unlicensed distributor, then Marvel can crack down on both the business that created the bootleg shirt as well as the company that sold it. There is a growing market for bootleg Punisher merchandise not just for cops or the military, but also for conservatives in general (a Punisher logo with Donald Trump's distinct hair on top of the skull has become a very popular symbol on bootleg marketplaces online).

In fact, Marvel could go even further and cease licensing Punisher merchandise entirely. That wouldn't eliminate the hand-drawn Punisher logos, but it could certainly curtail the amount of options out there for police officers who wish to identify with the killer vigilante.

KEEP READING: A History of The Punisher Logo Being Used By Police, Military & Politicians