Marvel and DC have made legal claims on the term "super hero" and its variants since the 1960s. Realizing they could only succeed in acquiring a trademark if they applied together, they filed for a joint trademark and received it in 1979, even though there were certainly other companies publishing superheroes at that time. This trademark applies to comic books, magazines, cardboard stand-up figures, playing cards, paper iron-on transfers, erasers, pencil sharpeners, pencils, notebooks, stamp albums and costumes. This means they have the exclusive right to make and market, say, a product called "Superhero Trading Cards," though not one called "Costumed Hero Trading Cards." Notably not included in the trademark are books, movies, websites, video games and TV shows, AKA where the real money is, but that's cold comfort if you're in the Halloween costume-making business. "Superhero" is a dictionary term. Cory Doctorow, a prolific sci-fi writer and essayist on intellectual property, condemned the trademark as an attempt to steal its use from the public. As retaliation, he suggested borrowing a phrase from Warren Ellis and referring to DC and Marvel characters as "underwear perverts." "Let's reserve the term 'super-hero' exclusively to describe the heroes of comics published by companies that aren't crooked word-thieves."
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.