Bringing down VIP

kyanther · Post by **kyanther** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:35 pm

So, its a new age for us comic fans, right? The internet has become such a great tool we can use. So what can we, as valiant fans, do to keep this other company from destroying the characters we have all come to love and know? Honestly, I don't have the answer myself, but I'm starting this topic so we can brainstorm a little bit. We all know we could simply not buy their products, but can we keep them from releasing any to start with? Here's all I've found so far that might be of some use to us.

Valiant Intellectual Properties, LLC
P. O. Box 2207
Wilmington, DE 19899
United States
Phone Number: 302-658-9141
Fax Number: 302-658-5614

And their attorney's info:
MICHAEL L. LOVITZ, ESQ.
CONNOLLY BOVE LODGE & HUTZ LLP
PO BOX 2207
WILMINGTON, DE 19899-2207
Phone Number: 302-658-9141
Fax Number: 302-658-5614

remember,have fun, ART IS RESISTANCE!!

kyanther · Post by **kyanther** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:39 pm

And in further digging, which may already be known to some of you, I've come across this:

"A year and a half ago, Newsarama reported that Lovitz had claimed the trademarks for several properties originally owned by Valiant Comics: Rai and the Future Force, Deathmate, Harbinger, and others. The applicant for these trademarks was "Valiant Intellectual Properties", having the same Delaware P.O. Box address as "Savage Tales Entertainment". Lovitz declined to give Newsarama any information about Valiant Intellectual Properties at the time. Not more is known about them, save that a year and half ago they approached Christopher Priest and Mark Bright in order to revive "Quantum and Woody", and that Priest described them as "people that we [Priest and Bright]'ve worked with before"."

source:http://rodrigobaeza.blog-city.com/

Coincidence?

ManofTheAtom · Post by **ManofTheAtom** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:44 pm

Too bad I didn't have a chance to go to his panel and ask him why he's helping VIP steal the trademarks.

muzzsucker · Post by **muzzsucker** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:52 pm

Idea #1

I don't think the newsarama article has come up yet but we could post in the talkbacks and let them see just how vocal and large a group of *SQUEE* off fanboys (and girls, okay not really) we are!!!! I think its important for the rest of the comic book buying world to see who is the bad guy here too. Someone already made a good point about how an old valiant fan could have flicked through the preview book in san diego and said "blah valiant became this...im out"

kyanther · Post by **kyanther** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:55 pm

Allright, so in addition to not buying anything that VIP might produce, I've figured out that Michael Lovitz, the attorney representing VIP, is also a comic artist, among other things.
So don't buy ANYTHING that supports this guy.

Yes, I can be mean.

ManofTheAtom · Post by **ManofTheAtom** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:01 pm

The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.

UnknownTales · Post by **UnknownTales** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:07 pm

Vote with your dollar.

When they both publish, buy what you think is the best product; the free market economy and the sales charts from Diamond will take care of the rest.

Zaphod · Post by **Zaphod** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:29 pm

The only course of action here is tactical atomic wedgies.

Valiant_1 · Post by **Valiant_1** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:52 pm

I say we take off....nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

Dr. Solar · Post by **Dr. Solar** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:06 pm

You know, I always liked that scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden and his Project:Mayhemites drag the commissioner into the bathroom and threaten him with a knife and rubber band.

Totally unrelated to the discussion at hand, I know.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:18 pm

kyanther wrote:Allright, so in addition to not buying anything that VIP might produce, I've figured out that Michael Lovitz, the attorney representing VIP, is also a comic artist, among other things.
So don't buy ANYTHING that supports this guy.

Yes, I can be mean.

Lovitz is a comic artist? I've never heard that. What's he done?

I know he's written "comics" on comic intellectual property stuff which were collected into a trade, I think Bob layton did the cover for it. Lovitz has got a lot of friends in the industry since he's a big comic art collector.

You can boycott VIP but since they haven't (and probably won't) produce anything I doubt that'll do much. We can all agree not to buy Lovitz's comics on intellectual property but since most of us have never heard of them and wouldn't buy them even if we had, again, not much difference there.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:13 pm

I dont think a lot of big name artists will support them, especially because of Shooters involvement with the true valiant return

and remember a lot of these guys have worked with him before rags and so on

Darques_Emporium · Post by **Darques_Emporium** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:57 pm

Valiant_1 wrote:I say we take off....nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

Good One.

After doing some digging around here and seeing what you guys are talking about, I have come to the conclusion that more comic fans need to know what is going on. If I had not come here and read any of the stuff pertaining to the differences between Valiant Evtertainment and VIP, I likely would never had known until it was too late and had already bough some of the garbage that it looks like VIP will be releasing. Is Valiant Entertainment trying to do anything legally to stop these Aholes? It really is sad now that I know about this situation. Information is power.

muzzsucker · Post by **muzzsucker** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:12 pm

Darques_Emporium wrote:
Valiant_1 wrote:I say we take off....nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.
Good One.

After doing some digging around here and seeing what you guys are talking about, I have come to the conclusion that more comic fans need to know what is going on. If I had not come here and read any of the stuff pertaining to the differences between Valiant Evtertainment and VIP, I likely would never had known until it was too late and had already bough some of the garbage that it looks like VIP will be releasing. Is Valiant Entertainment trying to do anything legally to stop these Aholes? It really is sad now that I know about this situation. Information is power.

VE seem to be fighting them hard legally. THere was a link somewhere to a site where you could read all the documents that were being sent to the trademark dept. there was even some posts by lawyers on the boards who were interpreting the documents. made for interesting reading. lots of lawyerly stuff is going on in the background

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:55 pm

Totally my opinion, but I think it's safe to say most, if not all, of the trademark issues that the original VALIANT owned are taken care of, otherwise we probably wouldn't be seeing the Harbinger HC with a new story in it in just a few weeks.

"It is only a matter of time."

-slym

leonmallett · Post by **leonmallett** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:08 am

ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.

Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:43 am

leonmallett wrote:
ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.
Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.

Well, take this how you'd like, but this is how I see it - if you take 5 pounds of ice cream and mix it with 5 pounds of *SQUEE*, you still have 10 pounds of *SQUEE* in the end.

-slym

TKWill · Post by **TKWill** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:58 am

slym2none wrote:
leonmallett wrote:
ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.
Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.
Well, take this how you'd like, but this is how I see it - if you take 5 pounds of ice cream and mix it with 5 pounds of *SQUEE*, you still have 10 pounds of *SQUEE* in the end.

-slym

Nicely put. Is this TM'd or may I freely use this?

*SQUEE* · Post by ***SQUEE*** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:02 am

If VIP gets to publish with the names of any Valiant characters I will personally consider it a sign of the apocalypse.

leonmallett · Post by **leonmallett** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:02 am

slym2none wrote:
leonmallett wrote:
ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.
Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.
Well, take this how you'd like, but this is how I see it - if you take 5 pounds of ice cream and mix it with 5 pounds of *SQUEE*, you still have 10 pounds of *SQUEE* in the end.

-slym

No offence taken. What I meant is that MoTA appears to be catastrophising somewhat, and hypothesising about a worst-case scenario. My point is that money is no guarantee of success, but to help themselves VEI would surely be better served by publishing sooner rather than later.

Whis would have the aded benefit of being able to read more new VALIANT material sooner...

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:06 am

ThrillKillWill wrote:
slym2none wrote:
leonmallett wrote:
ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.
Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.
Well, take this how you'd like, but this is how I see it - if you take 5 pounds of ice cream and mix it with 5 pounds of *SQUEE*, you still have 10 pounds of *SQUEE* in the end.

-slym
Nicely put. Is this TM'd or may I freely use this?

By all means... that is an old southern expression, as far as I know.

-slym

leonmallett · Post by **leonmallett** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:09 am

slym2none wrote:
ThrillKillWill wrote:
slym2none wrote:
leonmallett wrote:
ManofTheAtom wrote:The sad part is that if VIP gets "big name creators" to work on their rip off books then they might outsell VE's "real" VALIANT comics.

This "war" between publishers is more of a war of popularity between credit boxes than it is a war about trademarks and concepts.

I hope/DREAD that Walter and Dinish know this. I hope they know so they can act accordingly and dread it because it reeks of Bquake and VH 2.
Assuming that both try to establish at the same time. I hope VEI have their foot in the door first, and build from there.
Well, take this how you'd like, but this is how I see it - if you take 5 pounds of ice cream and mix it with 5 pounds of *SQUEE*, you still have 10 pounds of *SQUEE* in the end.

-slym
Nicely put. Is this TM'd or may I freely use this?
By all means... that is an old southern expression, as far as I know.

-slym

Surely a variation of "If it looks like *SQUEE*, and it smells like *SQUEE*, then it is *SQUEE*"?

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:13 am

We-ell... more like a variation of "10 pounds of *SQUEE* in a five-pound sack."

Maybe that and yours together, now that I think about it.....

-slym

leonmallett · Post by **leonmallett** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:15 am

slym2none wrote:We-ell... more like a variation of "10 pounds of *SQUEE* in a five-pound sack."

Maybe that and yours together, now that I think about it.....

-slym

A-ha! Breakthrough. You know with our combined <ahem> intellectual powers, this world could be ours!

Can I have somewhere sunny in my bit...?

TKWill · Post by **TKWill** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:19 am

I know it is late when all the posts turn to *SQUEE*