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How Disney Qualified for Design Patent for Marvel's Captain America Shield

By Lawrence E. Ashery
August 01, 2018

Fans of movies about fictional superheroes are probably familiar with Captain America and his miraculous shield. Recently, however, his shield showed up in a most unlikely place: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Captain America first appeared as a comic book character in 1940, and has since been valuable intellectual property of Marvel Comics, an operating unit of Marvel Entertainment. The Walt Disney Co. acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion. Like many entertainment content icons, Captain America's shield is also a valuable piece of intellectual property, and Disney is taking proper steps to protect it.

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