It's a valid trademark but not enforceable. That's why Kleenex is a made up word, easier to enforce.
No one can stop you calling your mutants, aliens or bio-engineered humans "superheroes". You can't have a superhero character in a blue suit with cape and underpants on top called "Superman", but you can have some other extraordinary superman who is also a superhero, as long as he's not called Clark Kent and couldn't be argued to be a copy of the well known comic book character, who you'd be MAD to copy anyway even if it was public domain.
Part of Larry Niven's thoughts. Full text has been on the Internet since 1986, I don't know if Larry Niven ever agreed to make it PD, easily found.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of...man_of_Kleenex
Quote:
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Must have been a real dumb or gullible judge that allowed it to stand when it was challenged.
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The USPTO is the most broken in the world. They make money from approvals, not rejections and don't do due diligence. The system favours the larger US company.
Also the DMCA, DRM and extension of copyright years after death (retrospectively!) is nothing to do with revenue for creators, or their family when they die, but purely due to US Corporate lobbying, esp. Disney and the greed of big US media "owners/publishers".