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A French woman is involved in the mother of all battles with DC Comics for naming her family advice app Wondermum.
Lise Sobéron received a letter from the superhero comic book company’s French lawyers on 1 April this year demanding she stop using the name because of its alleged similarity to Wonder Woman.
“When I got the letter, I rang my close friends and said: ‘Very funny, guys,’ thinking it was an April fool,” she said. “Then I contacted the lawyers’ office and realised it was no joke. They told me DC Comics objected to the name Wondermum.”
Sobéron, 43, who visits schools to talk about bullying, is a hero to parents and children in Caen in Normandy, where her company is based. The app provides local listings for family activities and atéliers (workshops) as well as advice and a chatroom. She insists her creation bears no resemblance to the fictional Wonder Woman.
Sobéron’s Wondermum has no red, gold or blue star-spangled outfit but wears a white T-shirt, blue trousers and red stiletto heels, with not a headdress in sight. She does sport a hexagonal pink and purple logo containing the letters WM, but Wondermum is a single word – unlike Wonder Woman – and uses the British spelling of “mum”, not the American “mom”.
“As far as I’m aware, DC Comics doesn’t own the word ‘wonder’,” Sobéron said. “I could have called the application Maman Merveilleuse, but it doesn’t have the same ring.”
Sobéron’s said it was her 11-year-old daughter, Lou, who came up with the name after her father, Lounis, died of the rare neurodegenerative disorder Charcot’s disease in 2020, aged 36.
“She told me that I am a real wonder mum, a true superhero, and better than a cartoon character because I exist and they don’t. How can I change the name after that?” Sobéron said. “The aim of the site is to help parents, and 80% of those using the site are mothers, many of them bringing up children alone like me. We are all superheroes but we have no power, and that’s what it’s about.”
The former financial adviser added: “It’s been so stressful I’ve lost 8kg [18lbs] in six months. We’re not talking about taking on the local corner shop but an American giant.”
She said most of her income was now going on paying her lawyer to fight this mother of battles. Last month, she set up a crowdfunder.
“At first I didn’t want to ask for money. It felt like begging and I have my pride. But now everything I earn is going in legal fees. My lawyer is a friend, so she’s not charging me a fortune, but she cannot work for free,” Sobéron said.
“They [DC Comics] want me to remove everything from the site: the name, the graphics and logo. It took me two years to develop the application. I’ve already invested a lot of money and taken out a loan. I worked out it will cost me between €20,000 and €30,000 [£17,500 and £26,000] to rename and redesign it.”
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Anne-Laure Boileau, Sobéron’s lawyer, said she had been accused of registering and using a trademark that DC Comics – which is owned by Warner Bros and also home to Batman and Superman – says conflicts with its Wonder Woman trademark.
“It basically criticises the similarities between the two trademarks but the only similarity is the prefix ‘wonder’. Beyond this prefix and beyond the reference to women, there are no visual or graphic similarities, and above all, we are dealing with concepts that are completely different,” Boileau told French television.
The Paris-based firm Beau de Loménie, European and French patent attorneys acting for DC Comics, did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for a response.
However, the lawyer in charge of the case for the firm told Le Parisien in April: “This is a matter of infringement of the intellectual and industrial property rights held by DC Comics. My client is a company that has invested heavily in its intellectual property rights and wishes to preserve them. There is no intention to harm this lady, and in fact, DC Comics is taking an amicable approach in an attempt to reach an agreement.”
Sobéron said DC Comics had proposed no solutions other than changing the app name and removing the graphics.
“I really don’t know why they are doing this,” she said. “It’s a real David and Goliath battle, which I just hope I can win.”
