Gonzalo Montenegro, a 41-year-old man, has been selling bread in his native Quinta Normal, a municipality in the province of Santiago, for more than 3 decades, as a young man, promoting his products by wearing a green T-shirt.Peter Panand another bearing the iconic symbol ofMan of Steel“And the second one that really stuck with people, and soon they started calling him.”Superpan‘, a play on the words for ‘superman’ and ‘pan’, the Spanish word for bread.

Over the past 28 years, Montenegro has usedSuperpanAs a brand selling its own bakery products, but about 3 years ago, he learned that he was sued by DC ComicsOwner’s Superman.

Montenegro told Chilean reporters that his legal troubles began at the height of the pandemic, when he began allowing people in need of money to sell his products under the brand name. SuperpanIt is assumed that some of them started promoting it online, and this caught the attention of a company DC ComicsIt is a global company and one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, according to odditycentral.

bakery logo

The Chilean baker thinks that DC Suppose he runs a large chain of bakeries, and not a small family-owned bakery in the neighborhood, or else it wouldn’t make sense to go after him, but they did, and the bakery found itself in court over the use of the name Superpanwho claimed DC that he is “virtually” the same as Superman, so the company’s lawyers argued that letting the company Superpan Acting would create confusion and damage the mark Superman commercial.

To make matters worse, the company joined Agrosuper Chilean also to the lawsuit, accused Superpan violating their own trademarks, such as “superpollo” And the”supercerdo” and others.

Montenegro

Now after nearly 3 years, the National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile (INPI) has issuedINAPI) has ruled in this case, declaring that Superpan It does not infringe any intellectual property and is free to use the name from now on.

Montenegro said, “I think DC They are suing a big company or brand, but they found a humble man who would have been stripped of everything because of the nickname he had adopted, for admiring Superman, when he was a child.” And after the legal victory, she managed Superpan Finally getting back to 100% customer service, although DC She still has the option to appeal, and Montenegro’s legal representation believes it is unlikely they will pursue him.