DC Comics has decided it isn’t happy with Spanish football giant Valencia wanting to use a bat symbol for its club logo.
Despite the fact Valencia CF has had a bat in its logo since the club was founded in 1919, and the first Batman comic was published in 1940, DC Comics have filed papers to the Office for the Harmonization of Internal Market (OHIM), which governs the European Union’s trademark registration process.
DC’s problem with Valencia is that the club has lodged a variant of its traditional design which has the bat with its wings raised.
That’s too close for comfort with presumably the latest incarnation of DC’s bat symbol:
But given DC Comics has changed that symbol almost every other year since Batman’s debut, it’s hard to see how the OHIC can rule against Valencia.
The evolution of the Batman Logo, from 1940 to the present. pic.twitter.com/fYCwymaRN2
— History Pics (@ThatsHistory) November 18, 2014The bat is an important symbol in the city. It sits atop Valencia’s coat of arms and its use is thought to have dated back to 1238, when King James of Aragon was fighting to take it back from the Moors.
Legend has it a bat landed on top of his flag and he proceeded to win Valencia back, whereby the bat was added to the coat of arms as a sign of good luck.
